Enchanted Water
by ArenaSkies
Summary: Coral had a simple life, until everything goes wrong. Her parents die, she loses her sister and is forced to live in an underwater world as a mermaid. Will she ever have a normal life again? Whats in store for her as she realizes shes more than she knows?
1. Chapter 1

**Enchanted Water**

**Chapter 1**

I gazed into the deep blue sea and saw the sky overhead begin to fade its bright colors replacing it with darkness. Night was a approaching and I knew my father expected me to arrive home soon.

I picked up my small green bag I always brought with me during times when I went somewhere. I carried small supplies, such as a comb, a few quarters, and a ring which I loved most dearly. The ring was a special gift from my grandmother, and since I did not enjoy wearing jewelry, I decided to just keep it in my small bag.

Of course my grandmother is dead now, so this was probably the only, and special, gift she had ever given me since she was so poor. I didn't mind though.

As I left the wet sand from the ocean shore, my feet were now touching the hard surface of dry sand. As I walked farther, the smell of the sea changed and was replaced by the pollution human have caused for many years.

I loved the sea, with all my heart and desires. It felt like my home, no, more than that, and I was glad I lived near it. Papa loved the sea too, but it was my mother who dreaded it. I don't know why, but I have heard it was something to do with when she was a small little girl.

Soon I approached my house and saw my mother watering the garden and my father checking the car.

"Hey Coral!" My little sister shouted out once she came out of the house, she was just ten and I was six years older than her. My dad looked at me and gave a small smile, but my mother continued to do her work with the garden.

I looked over at my house. It was pretty small, two bedrooms and only one bath with a very small living room and kitchen. We didn't have a garage but just a simple driveway and a fairly small tree gave shade to our car.

I lived in a small town in Oregon, near the beach obviously, but still having a house just two blocks away from the beach is pretty expensive. And practically every house near the beach were small, all the big ones were in the country.

I smiled at my little sister when she came up to me. "Coral, did you take that doll with red curls I used to play with?" She asked.

"No, the dog must've taken it since you leave it in the yard the whole time." I answered.

My little sister started to cry and my smile faded. _Oh no, not again,_ I thought, _please don't cry!_ I begged silently. Once my sister starts to cry, it's impossible for her to stop and my mom and dad always blame me for it.

"Mina, I'll find the doll for you, just don't cry!" I insisted.

Mina whiped tears from her eyes, "But I want my dolly now!"

I sighed heavily, "Okay I took it, now I'll give it to you if you stop crying."

My little sister sniffed and nodded her head, "Okay."

I breathed in a sigh of relief. I hadn't taken the doll though, but at least it would give me a few minutes to look for it.

"Let's go inside." I said.

Me and my sister entered the house and I told her to go to her bedroom as I rushed outside to find her doll. My backyard was also small, and I went to check near the swings my father had built a little while after I was born. Now it's my sister who plays with it.

The doll wasn't there, I went and checked near our short apple tree which never gave apples by its unhealthy state, but there was no doll.

I scratched my head and decided to look inside the dog house, and there it was! Too bad the dog was asleep with the doll under his arms. My dog was big and scary looking; it would be a bad idea if you ever woke him up.

As gently as I could I lifted up his arms and saw the dog make a slight movement which made me stop short. I waited a few seconds then continued on until I had his arms out of the dolls way. I grabbed the doll and ran back inside the house before my sister would wonder what was taking so long for me to find the stupid doll.

I was panting hard from the run and knocked on my sister's bedroom, which was also mine since we shared a room, and she slowly opened the door.

I held out my hand that held the doll. "Here's your doll."

My sister made a disgusted face, "The head is ripped apart."

At first I didn't believe her, but then I looked down at the doll and saw she was right, the stupid dog had done it.

Too bad a second later my sister screamed and cried the same time and I was in deep trouble.

> > > > > > > >

I stared at my bedroom's ceiling and heard my sister's soft snores. _The little brat,_ I thought, _it's her fault I can't get out of the house tomorrow to go to the beach and instead work the whole day._

I sighed, you probably think I hate my sister, but I don't. She's still young and doesn't understand much, but in about a year she'll probably make sense of things more often. For a ten year old girl, she acted as if she was five, but that's because she was born with a mind that developed slower than a normal persons would. But it's a good thing she doesn't know that.

I turned the other side on my bed, but somehow I couldn't get to sleep. I tossed and turned a little more, but it didn't help, there was a noise inside my head that wouldn't go away. The sound of the ocean, or at least I thought it was.

I sat up from bed, I decided just to take a walk so I could get a little tired.

I got up from bed and did not turn on the light switch so it would not wake up my sister. I put on a pair of flip flops and put a long blue dress over me just to cover up my pajamas.

I quietly left my room and slowly made my way down the hall, into the living room and out the front door. I shivered as the cold breeze blew against me.

I started walking down the sidewalk; I passed by a few houses not much bigger than mine. Through one of the houses windows I saw a mother reading a book to her small child. I stopped to look. She was smiling at him as she read and the child was giggling at some funny part from the book.

I smiled, I wished my mother told me stories before bedtime when I was young, but she was too busy with her own stuff.

The mother looked right at the window and saw me; she smiled and gave a little wave. I waved back and continued to walk down the street.

The air grew colder and I hugged myself tight trying to stay warm, eventually I ended up at the beach.

I stopped; I felt the soft sand under my feet, the smell of the sea so clearly in the air. Waves hit hard against the shores and seemed to be coming closer to me, as if it wanted to grab me down with them. The wind blew against my side harder than before as if it was urging me to go out into the sea.

I took one step forward, then another, and another. Eventually my feet hit the cold water making it numb from such a coldness I had never felt before; it seeped inside of me reaching to my heart and mind. I shivered, but my feet still dragged me out into the ocean.

Something told me to come farther and farther out into the deep blue sea. The wind rocked on me harder, blowing towards the direction of the dark sea. Waves grew angrier and pulled me deeper into the ocean.

Soon the water reached up on my shoulders, but I still kept going feeling dazed and unfocused.

_Come_ the voice in my head urged. _Come to where you belong._

"Hey!"

I blinked once, twice, then shook my head trying to focus out things.

"Hey, what are you doing!" Someone shouted out.

I gasped and felt the coldness of the sea for the first time and realized where I was. I screamed, and tried to swim out of the water as fast as I could, but the wind grew stronger, and the waves grew angrier.

"Hang on!" The voice shouted once more.

A wave hit me hard and I grew off balance. It had apparently brought my head under the water and I was frantically trying to find my way up towards the surface. I hadn't realized the wave had pulled me farther into the sea making it deeper.

I tried to scream but bubbles escaped from my mouth. I swam faster to the surface, but another wave hit me hard sending me off balance once more. I was losing my breath and bright red dots escaped before my eyes making my vision dim.

I swam faster, but it only made things worse. Wave after wave hit me and there was no way I could make it to the surface on time. I grew frantic, but it only made me tired. I gave one last try to the surface, but my vision slowly turned black and I sank down into the ocean floor.

> > > > > > > >

I felt water slowly rise out of my lungs replacing by air. The water came up to my throat and I chocked gagging out water.

I coughed harder and my throat started to hurt. I coughed a little more making some more water escape from my throat.

I breathed in huge gulps of air and tried to calm down a bit.

"Are you okay?" Someone asked.

I turned around clutching my throat, it was a guy a little older than me.

"Yeah I'm fine." I managed to sputter out.

"What were you doing out there in the middle of the ocean at an hour like this?" He asked.

I tried to remember, but couldn't seem to find an answer. "I don't know."

"Were you trying to kill yourself?"

"No."

"Then why were you out there?"

"I said I don't know." I replied.

He sighed. "It's a good thing I saved your life or else you would've been probably dead by now." He said.

I tried to smile but only coughed some more. "Thanks for saving me."

"Right, but don't do that crazy thing again." He said.

"I won't." I promised.

"Do you want me to call the ambulance or do you—"

I jerked up. "No! No that's okay, I should be heading home now." I got up to leave.

I took one last look at him and said, "Thanks a lot! I really mean it!" I ran and headed home.

Meanwhile out into the dark blue sea a pair of cold black eyes stared as the running girl took off from the beach. He looked over to the boy who had apparently taken the girl from being his.

He stared angrily at the boy as he got up and left also.

The creature clenched his fist hard. _Don't you worry little girl, you'll be mine soon and this time no one's going to save you._

And the creature turned off and swam back out into the ocean.

* * *

**A/N:** I said the creature clenched his fists, meaning he has hands, so don't flame me for saying fish don't have hands, because the character might not be a fish. Just telling you that. Read and review please.

-Dark Arrow


	2. Chapter 2

**2**

I arrived home sooner than I expected. As before, I quietly sneaked back to bed, careful not to make any noise, and slipped inside its warm covers. I didn't bother to change the dress I had been wearing, I was too tired to even care.

I was so exhausted, but somehow I kept on thinking about what happened at the beach. How could I have done what I did? I couldn't have just walked down to the beach and just decide to go and have a swim at this time of the hour and cold weather.

But what if something made me go down there into the water? Forced my mind too cooperate and do as I was told. No, that couldn't be possible. I was probably too tired to know what I was doing. I didn't exactly know what happened at the beach, just that I end up in from it and then see myself wake up surrounded by water and almost drown.

I tried to clear those thoughts away, but they still lingered on inside my head, and I didn't like it. In a way, I could hold back a very small memory from the beach. I had thought I heard a voice inside my head welcoming me to where I was heading, but I'm not so sure of it.

Maybe this whole thing is a dream. Yeah, I agreed with that thought. I'm just dreaming this whole thing and I'll wake up in the morning great as ever.

I smiled; there was nothing to worry about at all.

But I never knew how wrong I was.

> > > > > > > > >

"Coral get back inside the house!" Dad yelled at me.

I stopped and turned around; I was just about to head outside.

"Why?"

"Because you're responsible of what happened to Mina's doll, because of you she's cried the whole day." Dad explained.

"But I didn't do it I told you! I found it with the dog since she leaves her doll outside all the time. I had nothing to do with it, I swear!" I protested.

"Coral, you expect me to believe that? After all, I've seen you take Mina's old dolls before and hide it away."

"But that was four years ago! I don't do that anymore. And besides, it's just a stupid doll, why would I get grounded for that thing?" I said. Dad just sighed and shook his head.

"And what proof does Mina have that I destroyed the doll?" I said.

I saw the look on my father's face, he was about to give in.

"Alright Coral, but if your mother makes a fuss about it, you better talk to her before she yells at me." Dad said.

I ran over to my dad and gave a big hug and a few kisses. "Thanks dad!"

He just smiled and I headed back outside, but dad had one more thing to say.

"Go fishing and maybe your mother won't make a fuss about you."

I replied okay and stepped outside of the house heading to the docks. My father owned a small boat and we always went fishing together, sometimes we'd fish at the pier as well.

After walking for two blocks, I arrived at the docks and walked over to my dad's boat. There were two fishing poles, one red, and the other blue. I took the blue one since it was mine and smaller than the red one. I also grabbed a bucket and dipped it inside the sea to get some water so I could place the fish inside when I catch them.

I took a bag of small fish, which were fake, so I could attach it onto the hook.

I had to go fishing at the pier since my father didn't let me drive the boat on my own. The pier was close by, just a block away.

I headed towards the pier; I saw a family of four buying a few shells from a small shop located on the pier. I shook my head, each shell from the shop looked exactly like the ones you'd find on the ground at the beach. I have seen the shopkeeper picking up shells from the ocean shore for his shop. And his shells are not cheap.

I ignored the family; they probably were from out of town anyway and didn't know much about this place. There were a few tourists here in the summer because you could find whales swimming in the sea at any time. Most of them were killer whales.

I walked up the pier and headed for the very far side of it. I was lucky, there weren't many fishers today, probably since it was too early in the morning and everyone's at work.

I put down my bucket of water and opened the bag of fake fish. I was about to place one of the fish onto one of the hooks when I felt something staring at me.

I walked over at the edge of the pier and looked down trying to see if something was in the ocean, there wasn't. Just rocking waves and a few surfers.

I shook my head, it was only my imagination.

I continued what I was doing and as I managed to place the fake fish onto the hook, I made sure no one was behind me and threw the fishing line as far as I could into the sea.

It landed about twenty or thirty feet away from the pier and hit with a very small splash. So the only thing I could do now is wait.

I sat at a nearby bench placing the bucket next to me. I continued to wait for a jolt on my fishing line. I waited some more, and a little more. Still no movement.

I had been waiting for twenty minutes, then time flew by as half an hour, then an hour, an hour and a half, and still no movement.

By now there were two fishermen waiting as well near my spot. They were lucky enough to catch at least one fish, I had none.

I grew impatient and brought back my fishing line. The fish was still placed on it, it hadn't fallen off, so then what was taking so long?

I threw back my fishing line inside the water and decided to wait a little more. I waited for another twenty minutes and was about to give up when suddenly, my fishing line shook. I had been slouched against the bench and sat straight up. Finally I had caught a fish!

I pulled the line back as hard as I could. But it appeared that the fish I had caught was a big one. My fishing pole was bending in a U shape and I felt my grip on the pole begin to slip.

I pushed harder but the fish wouldn't even get above the surface of the water. At least I had to know what type of fish I caught.

The two fishermen beside me looked at me wide eyed. They obviously were also wondering what type of fish I had caught.

I still was trying to pull the fish line back, but it was impossible, I knew it. I had probably caught a shark and I wasn't strong enough to pull it back.

I figured it would be best if the fish just managed to escape from my hook, I didn't want to lose my fishing pole.

Suddenly my fishing pole was pushed towards the water with such force, I was caught off guard. I should've let go of the fishing pole.

I screamed as I was pushed over the wooden fence surrounding the pier and fell over expecting to crash into the sea. I closed my eyes tight, but I still did not hit water. I slowly opened my eyes as I saw the two fishermen holding me by my left arm.

"It's okay, we got you." One of the fishermen reassured. They pulled me back over onto the pier and I landed hard onto the wooden surface. Boy was I glad to be safe.

"That must've been a heavy fish you handled." One of the fishermen said.

I was breathing hard and managed to sputter out, "I can't believe it… I just can't, thank you, thank you both so much!"

The fishermen's just smiled and helped me back onto my feet.

"You shouldn't go fishing alone young lady, sometimes it could get dangerous."

I nodded panting, "Yeah maybe I shouldn't, I- I just didn't know I would catch a fish so big."

The fishermen's nodded. "It's not common for a big fish like that to come around this area." One replied.

I sighed, counted to ten in my head trying to calm myself a bit.

"You should go home lady, you need the rest."

I smiled. "Thanks, but how could I thank you both?"

"You already did, just that you should be heading home."

I smiled again and waved goodbye to both of them. I felt bad that I hadn't thanked them enough for what they did, but I had no choice so I took my bucket and bag of fish and headed home. Too bad my fishing pole dropped into the water.

But that didn't stop me from pondering. I had a few thoughts running through my head. Today I could've fallen into the water and drowned, much like yesterday. Something wasn't right, and I needed to find out what.

Maybe the next time I come back to the beach, something like today, or yesterday might occur again. But I still didn't believe it, I couldn't. Today was just because some fish too big got caught on my hook and I was too weak to pull it out of the water. Yesterday I was probably too sleepy and didn't know what I was doing.

There's no such thing as someone trying to force me into the water without me knowing. It's just some coincidence.

* * *

Read and review please. 


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** I have this same story in just a note.

**3**

I dreamed that night. And I don't think it was a good dream.

I was swimming in the water, no, more like drowning and trying to swim my way to the surface. The water surrounding me was boiling; it made me want to scream out from the pain inside of me, the pressure in the water even though I was only fifteen feet under.

_Come._ A voice said. _Come to where you belong._

I tried my best to ignore the voice; it sent me chills as it repeated itself over and over again.

_Come. _

My insides were giving out, my heart slowing its pounding, my lungs screaming for air, my vision turning dark. And all the while there was that voice.

But I kept on trying with all my will to make it to the top, swimming faster than ever. Trying so hard I felt as if I was going to give up, but I kept swimming, hoping that I would make it.

I didn't.

I gasped and sat straight up in bed as I woke from my nightmare. I was breathing hard and I felt sweat drop down my forehead.

I wondered what the dream meant. My grandmother used to say that dreams did come true. But I never believed her, because it never happened to me.

But two days ago I was drowning, much like my dream, but I don't think there was boiling water and that voice.

My breathing returned to normal and I kept on telling myself it was just a dream, and nothing more.

I rubbed my forehead, and wiped the sweat away. It disturbed me so much that the dream felt so real.

I shivered, it wasn't a comforting thought.

I looked at my right to see if my sister was still fast asleep, she wasn't. I looked over at my alarm clock, it read 9:15. A bit late to come down for breakfast.

I got up from bed and looked through my dresser trying to see if there was anything good to wear. I mostly had dresses and skirts, unlike most girls who like to wear pants most of the time.

I picked out a blue dress since it was my favorite and put it on. I walked over to a large mirror I had hanging behind a door. I stared back at my reflection. Plain brown hair and eyes, high cheeks bones, but nothing special. I was pretty, but not beautiful.

I gazed down at my dress and seemed satisfied by the look. I grabbed my small bag and quietly left the room.

I made my way into the kitchen and saw mom preparing lunch already.

"Morning mom." I called over to her. She continued cooking not really paying any attention to me.

I saw waffles on the kitchen table for breakfast, so I sat down. I decided to make a conversation with my mom while I ate.

"So where's dad?"

Mom managed to look over to me. "Went off to work like every other day."

"But today's a Saturday, he's not supposed to work."

"The more he works the more money we get." Was her simple answer.

I frowned; my dad's job wasn't exactly the best and sometimes took days for him to get home. He was a truck driver, and he had to travel all the way from Oregon to Seattle.

I sighed, "He said he was going fishing with me today." But he told me that a week ago, he could've changed his mind.

Mom just laughed. "Oh please, what's more important? Some lousy boat ride in the ocean getting some stupid fish or the money?"

My eyebrows furrowed. "I thought you liked to eat the fish."

"I _used_ to Coral, now I'm better off with beef." My mom answered.

I looked down at my waffles and suddenly wasn't in the mood to eat. "But mom, you know dad's supposed to rest on Saturday's since it's the only day he doesn't work." I say. But sometimes he would forget about resting and just go fishing with me.

I saw mom roll her eyes. "Like I care?"

I stared angrily at her, "Why don't you care? I thought dad was worth a lot to you! You made him go off to his work, didn't you? You wanted him out of the house just so your boyfriend could come along!" The moment I said that, I regretted it. But I knew my mother was cheating on my dad, I'd seen what she does when her boyfriend comes over to our house. My mom didn't care if we saw, just that we don't tell our father about it.

Mom turned angrily at me. "Exactly! And I love him more than your father! I never loved your father for one second! I only married him because it was the only way to leave my mother's house!" mom yelled, "and don't you even think about telling your father, or I'll kill you."

I stopped and looked back at my waffles. I hated my mom for what she did to my father. Dad deserved better.

I knew my mom always acted kind towards my dad, but it was a lie.

I couldn't stand being in the same room as my mom, so I got up and left.

"Wait Coral!" I recognized as my sister's voice.

I stopped and turned before heading out the door, "What?"

"Can I come with you?"

"No." I opened the door and left, but my sister followed.

"Please Coral! I promise I won't do anything you wouldn't like!" My sister pleaded.

I gave an exasperate sigh and looked back at my sister. "Mina just stay in the house and play with your dolls."

"But I wanna go fishing with you."

"I'm not going fishing."

"Then can I come with you at the beach?" She asked. I suddenly noticed she was wearing a bathing suit under her clothes.

I shook my head, "I'm going over to Sara's." Sara was a friend of mine, and my only friend. We knew each other since we were six.

"Can I come?"

"No!" I turned and walked off ignoring my sister's pleads. I took long strides, but my sister followed me wherever I went.

I didn't want my sister to come along, something always bad happened when she did. One time I went to Sara's house and Mina had broken an expensive china set her mom had bought in Paris.

I stopped and turned back around angrily at my sister. "Fine! Come along, but you better not do anything stupid!"

I stalked off and my sister ran to catch up with me.

After I had arrived at Sara's house, her mom grew worried when she noticed my sister came. Sara had suggested we go to the beach and play volleyball with her two twin brothers. I knew why, so my sister won't stay in the house and break anything. Her mom seemed delighted by the idea.

Her brother's were two years younger than her, but weren't a trouble maker like Mina. Once they heard about our plan, they agreed since they had nothing else to do but watch TV.

So now here we were playing volleyball at the beach, and luckily we found a net we could play with. There were only two at the beach and always occupied by older teenager's.

It was me and Sara verses her two brothers'. My sister was off to have a swim in the ocean.

"Coral your turn!" Sara threw the ball at me.

I grabbed at it and served the ball over the net. The boys hit it and were busy hitting the ball to each other trying to spike it.

They hit it over the net causing the ball to come back to me. I was about to hit it, but missed. It was the boys turn to serve.

We continued playing volleyball and I hadn't noticed my sister was swimming too far in the ocean. I was having such a good time I totally forgot about her.

After about an hour of playing, we heard a shrill scream coming from the ocean.

Oh no, please don't let it me Mina! I silently begged. I turned to look over at the ocean trying to spot Mina.

"Hey Coral is that your sister?" Sara said. She pointed to the left side of the sea.

I looked at her direction and saw my sister flailing her arms as if she was drowning.

"Coral help!" She shouted.

"I'm coming!" I yelled back.

I ran down the soft sand trying to get to my sister. I was having trouble since it was difficult to run in these sands.

"Coral, please help me!" Mina continued to shout.

By now I was in the water and frantically trying to swim my way through the waves trying to get to my sister. Sara was close behind along with her brothers.

I saw my sister's head disappear beneath the water. I dived under trying to spot my sister.

I searched frantically with my eyes open, even if the salt stung my eyes. At last I saw my sister not too far from me, but she wasn't alone. There was a creature that had trapped her under his strong arms. He stared at me with two cold black eyes.

I had never seen anything like it. He appeared to be human from the top, and something else. He had no legs, instead fins. Black ones and so long and powerful there was no way I could free my sister from that thing. It looked like a merman, but not any I had ever seen before in books.

He stared at me a little while longer and then noticed Sara swim up behind me and he turned and swam off letting go of my sister. I quickly went to grab her before she drowned.

I brought my sister up to the surface and she breathed in large gulps of air.

"Did you see that Sara?" I asked when she came up behind me along with her brothers.

"See what?"

"That thing!"

"What thing?"

"That thing with long black fins with a body of a man!"

"A thing with a what?"

"Never mind."

Obviously she hadn't saw what I had seen. It sent me chills when I pictured it in my head.

I swam back to the sea shore holding on to my sister. She was coughing pretty hard and I wonder if she was going to vomit.

I dragged my sister on the wet dirt since she was still busy coughing. Sara pounded on her back hard and that seemed to stop the coughing, for now.

"You idiot!" I shrieked, "You could've gotten killed!"

Mina looked at the ground and didn't say anything.

"I told you not to do anything stupid, and you did! What made you think to go and swim that far?"

"Hey Coral calm down alright? You know your sister won't understand no matter how many times you tell her." Sara said.

I calmed down. Sara did have a point, sometimes I forgot my sister had a problem in her head.

"I'm sorry Coral." Mina muttered.

I sighed. "It's okay Mina, I understand." But she didn't. She'll never know about the problem she has in her head. She won't understand anyway.

"Okay I'm going home, I can't play volleyball in these wet clothes." One of Sara's brothers admitted.

"Yeah me too, we should all go home. Maybe some other time we'll play again." Sara acquired.

So we all headed home and Mina never talked the rest of the way. I wonder if she did see that creature as well.

"Mina?" I asked breaking the silence.

"Yeah?"

"Did you see anything when you drowned? Something strange?" I asked.

"No, my eyes were closed." She said.

That figures. I did notice the creature did cover Mina's eyes. But I thought about what it could've been. Maybe it was a merman, but in all the books I've read they were kind, not evil.

But even if it was a merman, they didn't exist. It was just a bunch of fairy tale and myth.

But whatever I saw was true, I knew I wasn't imagining it. Maybe that was the creature who tried to drown me twice?

_No it couldn't be_, I thought, _that was my fault, and no way could he have made me drown._

But maybe it was, and as I entered in the house, I never knew what surprise I was just about to meet.

Review please.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** Thanks to all my reviewers.

**4**

I walked over to my mom wearing my wet clothes; she was sitting on a couch staring off into space having a mysterious look across her face. She had the phone in her hand but there was a dead tone.

"Mom?" I called to her.

She didn't answer.

"Mom?" I called louder.

She slowly turned her head around and looked at me. She opened her mouth to speak but stopped and shook her head.

I went over and sat beside her. "Mom, what's wrong?"

She turned her head once again and stared deeply into my eyes. My sister was still by the door wondering what was wrong with mom as well.

"Oh Coral, you're not going to believe this." Mom said.

I grew confused, what did she mean?

"I got a phone call from your father's work, they said he was off delivering at a rainy day and he—he…"

"What?"

Mom closed her eyes, "he lost control of the truck and crashed causing the truck to flip over."

For a moment, I didn't understand what she said at first, but then the words started to sink in and I just couldn't believe any of it.

"No, it can't be…" I whispered. Mom remained silent and my sister remained frozen.

"You're lying!" I screamed, "it can't be true, it can't! He's not dead is he? Please say no!"

Mom didn't say a word and I got the sign that he did die.

I stood up from the couch glaring at my mother, and at the same time I started to cry.

"Why mom? Why! Why did you sent him off to work! It's all your fault, yours!" I screamed at mom.

Mom stood up as well angrily, "I don't care! I'm happy that he's dead!"

I clenched my fist, "I hate you! I hate you! I wish you died instead!" I shoved her out of the way and ran to my room.

I shut the door angrily and landed on my bed. I wept hard on my pillow, and didn't care if my bed got wet from my clothes.

"It's not fair, it's not fair." I whispered.

I sobbed and kept on hitting the bed screaming 'why' with my head buried on the pillow.

I felt abandoned; my father was the only one who cared about me. Without him, what would I do? No more fishing, no more love, no more anything!

I cried harder as I thought about this. I heard my bedroom door open and my sister walk in.

"Coral, are you alright?" My sister asked.

"Leave me alone."

My sister didn't leave. I looked up from my pillow at her with tear stained eyes.

"I said leave me alone!" I threw my pillow at her.

She quickly left the room and closed the door frightened.

Right at that moment I hated everyone, all I wanted was my father. "Why, why, why, why, why!" I kept on ranting those words.

I grabbed the covers of my bed and buried my face in them continuing to cry. I realized I was growing tired after a few minutes, so eventually I fell asleep.

I woke up at six o'clock the morning. I looked around the room and saw my sister wasn't in bed. Her covers weren't even touched.

I got up from bed and walked over to the window. I stared out as the sun began to rise, I looked up at the clouds and thought of my father.

_Are you up there?_ I wondered, _staring down at me from heaven?_

I sighed, I began to wish I was up there too, with my father. That was all I wanted.

I turned away and walked out of my room. I didn't bother to change, I wasn't wearing my night gown, just yesterday's clothes. I didn't care, my clothes had dried up anyway.

I walked down the hall and peaked inside my mom's bedroom, she was in there sleeping with her boyfriend.

I glared at the two of them sleeping so peacefully. How could mom do that? Just forget about dad and invite her boyfriend over?

I shook my head, mom didn't care about dad. So why shouldn't she care about bringing her boyfriend?

I entered the kitchen and made my own breakfast. A toast with butter.

I started to eat but couldn't finish my food. I left it at the table thinking maybe my sister would eat it.

Except, where was my sister?

I checked the living room, not there. The bathroom trying to see if it was locked, no one there. I came out the back door seeing my sister in the backyard sitting on one of the swings. She had her head bowed and her hair covered most of her face.

I walked over to her and sat down on a swing.

"Daddy's gone isn't he?" Mina asked.

I didn't respond for a while, then said, "Yeah…he's gone."

Mina sniffed and I noticed that she had been crying. "I want daddy back."

"Me too, but once he's gone, he can't come back."

Mina rocked slowly on the swing and I pulled her to sit on my lap. "I'm sorry Mina, for what I did yesterday." I said.

"That's okay."

I hugged her tightly in my arms. Maybe there were still a few people who cared about me, my sister and Sara. Mina gazed up at the stars that were slowly fading by the light.

"I saw mommy with him." Mina replied.

I stared down at her. She referred 'him' as mom's boyfriend.

"I know Mina, mom doesn't care."

My sister started to cry and I tried to comfort her as much as possible.

"I don't want to lose you Mina." I whispered.

So we both sat there as the sun slowly began to rise making the stars disappear.

> > > > > > > > > > > > >

Two days passed and it was the day of my father's funeral. I sat there in the church weeping with Mina sitting beside me along with my mom. We sat in the front row of the church and I looked ahead at my father's coffin.

The coffin was open revealing my father's face. He looked so pale, his lips were turning blue and when I had touched my father's face, it was cold.

Mina cried as well, my mom too, but of course hers was fake.

I was wearing a black dress, a color I hated a lot. But mom said I had to wear it since in the funeral people had to where dark colors.

There weren't that many people in he church. A few relatives from California and my friend Sara. She sat behind me. I knew she was trying her best to comfort me, but it really wasn't working.

"Coral, your father's at a better place now, he wouldn't want to see you sad." Sara kept on whispering.

"I mean, we're all going to die someday, and then you could be with your father forever." She said.

I sighed; I wished I was there now instead of later.

Sara grew quiet as the priest walked over to my dad's coffin and started to pray. The priest chanted and said for my father's soul to rest in peace.

The priest's words faded from my mind and I watched as they closed my father's coffin. Mina cried harder, me as well. They were going to cremate my father, I just knew it.

And they did.

> > > > > > > > > > > >

I held a jar in my hands. Not just any jar, the jar which held the body of my father, or what was left of it. Only dust.

I looked over at the sea as I stood alone on some rocks. The rocks my father and me used to run around playing hide and seek when I was little.

I looked down; I was about fifteen feet from falling into the ocean.

I wanted to come alone here, no Mina, no Sara, especially no mom.

I felt tears well up in my eyes, the wind blew hard.

"I wish you could've still been here," I whispered, "why did you leave me?"

I felt a single tear drop on my cheek as I opened the lid. I outstretched my hand which held the jar over the sea.

"I'll never forget you dad…" And I poured the remains of my father out into the sea.

I watched as it disappeared into the waves never to appear again.

I fell on my knees and cried like I had never cried before.

* * *

Review…please? 


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: **I think it _would_ be best if I made Coral's mom have a little sympathy, just to make it realistic like one reviewer told me. **Thanks to all my reviews!**

**5**

I continued to cry, feeling as if the world had ended right here.

Suddenly, I heard a ripple from the water and something bright appeared from the sea. I gazed down and saw the most magnificent thing anyone could ever see. The waves stopped, the water grew still. The color vanished from sea green to purple. Not just plain purple, but the water sparkled itself as if it was enchanted.

I peered closer and saw my reflection in the water. But at least I thought it was me. I had blue eyes, so clear and dark it was just beautiful. My eyelids were blue as well, along with my eyelashes and hair.

I gasped and grabbed a fistful of hair trying to see if my hair was really blue. It wasn't, just plain brown like before.

I looked back at the water, and my strange reflection was gone. But instead there was my father's. He looked right at me and smiled.

I couldn't believe my eyes! My father was right there staring at me! I checked behind me trying to see if he was there, he wasn't. But then, where was the reflection coming from?

"Daddy…" I whispered. I reached my hand out toward trying to touch his face once more, but I was too far away.

His reflection faded, the purple water stopped sparkling and became once again sea green.

"No!" I screamed, "Don't go!"

But he was gone, all I could hear now was the waves rocking back and forth gently hitting the rocks.

"Come back…" I whispered. Why did my father leave? Why couldn't he have stayed a little longer?

I looked out at the horizon seeing the sun high above the clouds, seagulls flying free and eager to catch fish. The day seemed cheerful, everything seemed so happy, it was as if nothing was wrong at all.

I sighed and looked back down at the water.

I gasped. There it was! The creature who nearly drowned my sister. I saw the cold pair of eyes staring at me from the bottom of the ocean, staring straight into my eyes as if trying to tell me something.

I seemed dazed by its stare, it was terrifying and great at the same time. I leaned closer from the rocks edge, what was it trying to say? Its mouth moved as if trying to talk, but of course I couldn't hear anything.

I leaned farther and farther until I felt myself lose my balance. I screamed as I almost fell from the top of the rocks, luckily I still hadn't loosened my grip or I would have fallen.

I stared back at the water as I stood up, but it was gone. I only saw a small school of fish swim by, but that was all.

I shook my head, what did that thing want anyway?

I picked up the jar and started to head home.

As I arrived into the house, I saw mom sitting on the couch drinking a bottle of beer. I looked beside her at a table and saw already three bottles empty. Mom never drinked beer, she never went to bars late at night either.

"Mom?" I called out.

She took a long drink from the bottle and turned to me, her eyes were red. "What honey?"

"Why are you drinking?"

She sighed and rubbed her eyes, "Because there's nothing else to do."

"But you've never drinked before."

"Ssstop asking questions." Mom replied, her words began to slur.

I saw her take another long drink from the bottle, she gulped loudly as she drank. "You miss dad?" I asked.

Mom chuckled, "Yeah, I think I do… stupid isn't it?"

She started to laugh a little more and I backed away heading to my room.

I slowly entered and saw my sister sitting at a desk staring at pictures from a book. My sister couldn't read, but the doctor had told us she can make lots of imaginations from pictures. That was a year ago.

I saw her stare intensely at a picture with a girl hugging her father as she was sitting on his lap.

I went and pulled out a chair to sit beside her. "You want me to read the book for you?" I asked.

She didn't reply but continued to stare at the picture. She didn't turn the page to continue on and watch other pictures.

"I remember when daddy used to make me sit on his lap when he read me a book," Mina replied.

I forced myself to smile, "Yeah me too, he used to do that to me as well."

My sister closed the book and turned to face me, "Why's mommy drinking?"

I sighed, "I don't know Mina, she probably misses dad."

"But I thought she liked her boyfriend."

"I know Mina, but that doesn't me she didn't like dad too."

My sister tilted her head trying to study my expression. She was silent for a while, "I heard her say that she was happy that daddy was dead."

I paused for a moment trying to think through what she said, "Maybe she was lying."

"Why isn't her boyfriend here?" She asked.

"I don't know." I replied.

We sat there staring each other for a while until I spoke, "Hey do you want to play checkers?"

My sister flashed a smile, "Okay"

She got up from her chair and tugged at my arm, "Come on let's play!"

I smiled, how quickly my sister forgets about things. I went over to a cabinet and rummaged through my things trying to find the checkers board.

I found it hidden under a pile of clothes, I set it onto the floor and my sister eagerly waited as I prepared the game.

My sister was actually good at games, I don't know why but her mind had a good way to figure out strategies. It was probably the only thing she was good at.

I would have rather played chess, but I knew it would take forever just to teach Mina. I know, because it took me half an hour just to explain how to play checkers.

Mina moved first, I moved after her. She let one of her pieces move over to the corner. After a while I had moved all of my pieces and most of them were trapped.

My sister giggled as she took one of my pieces, "You're too easy."

I pretended to look mad, she only giggled.

At last I had only two pieces left, she had five. Mina had two kings, I had none.

I made a move and Mina easily jumped over the piece with one of her kings.

"One piece left!" She exclaimed.

I sighed, I wasn't playing easy on her. She was just really good at these games. I wasn't too bad at it, since I had beaten most kids at my school when there was a tournament for checkers.

My sister would probably be a professional one day if she learned how to play chess, who knows? I know she would just love the game.

One piece left, of course I was losing. Mina just hummed to herself happily as I thinked hard over what move I would make. There was none, no matter where I went, Mina could take my piece.

I gave up and just moved the piece over. Mina happily moved her other king and took my piece away. She won, like always.

"I win! I win!" She shrieked.

"Bravo." I replied sarcastically.

"Let's play again!"

I groaned, "Come on you're going to win anyways."

"I wanna play!"

"No."

"Yes!"

"_No_"

"Yes!"

"Okay, okay, just _one_ more game and that's it!" I said.

She eagerly sat down, once more we played.

After about ten minutes, the game was over and Mina won again.

"How did you do that?" I asked. It was actually amazing if you saw my sister play.

She grinned, "My secret."

I shook my head, Mina did have a talent.

I heard sobs coming from the living room. I looked over at my sister, she had stopped jumping with excitement. She heard it too.

I stood up quickly and ran out the door over to the living room, I saw my mother there sitting at the couch crying.

I walked over to her and sat down with my sister beside me.

"Mom what is it, what's wrong?" I asked.

"Mommy?" Mina replied.

"Oh Coral I'm so sorry, so sorry." Mom hugged me tightly as she cried on my shoulder. I patted her back, I tried to comfort her.

"It's okay mom, it's alright."

"No, no, no… he's gone and it's my fault." Mom sobbed.

I tried to hold back tears, but couldn't. I cried as well.

"No it's not your fault mom," I cried, "it's not."

She shook her head and continued to cry.

"I didn't mean what I said about him Coral, I really didn't!" Mom said, "I do love your father, I always have!"

I didn't say anything just stared back at her silently. _If she loved dad, why was she cheating on him?_ I thought.

Mom rubbed her eyes and sniffed. She looked at me as if reading my thoughts, "Coral I know I cheated on him, but I didn't love Matt." Matt was her boyfriend's name.

"Then why did you do it?" I asked.

Mom didn't reply but looked down sadly, "Your father didn't let me have any money once he found out what I was using it for."

I grew confused, "What do you mean?"

Mom just shook her head, "Drugs." She said it just barely above a whisper.

I gasped and stood up from the couch, "What?"

Mom looked up at me, "Three years ago he found me using drugs. After that he didn't give me any money," She said, "he only gave me money if I was with him shopping."

I remained silent and stared at her open mouth.

"But after a few days I couldn't take it anymore, I needed the drugs! So I found Matt, he always gave me money, but there was always a price to pay."

I said nothing, and I realized that's why she had a boyfriend this whole time.

"But, why did you take drugs?" I said.

"I took it ever since I was a teenager; my parent's house wasn't exactly the best," She explained, "But then I met your father, and we got married. I was free from home at last! I tried to stop using the drugs, but then I realized, I had become addicted to it."

The information to me was too much, I couldn't stand it anymore.

"Why didn't you get a job instead get money from your boyfriend?" I replied slowly.

"Because I—"

"No mom! You could've gone to a doctor to stop taking the drugs! You could've done a lot of things instead cheat on dad!"

I ran out of the room and went out into the backyard.

I was furious at my mom and dad.

_Why didn't dad take her to the doctor? He knew she took drugs!_

I clenched my teeth as I thought about this. _Mom and dad could've been a great couple if dad helped her!_

I started to pace back and forth. I remembered the day my dad went off to work, to his death. I had woken at two o'clock the morning hearing my mother yell at dad.

She had been saying over and over again how she hated him, how she wanted him to die.

I wondered what made mom go so crazy, but now I figure that it was the drugs this whole time. She had probably no money to go buy them and had gone berserk.

I remembered dad's yells, how I heard him leave the house.

I hoped he would be back in the morning, but instead my mother had said he had gone off to work.

I stopped suddenly, how did my mom know dad had gone off to work? I didn't remember in there argument dad say anything about going to his job.

And his job doesn't start until six at night. Why would dad leave in the morning when he had more than twelve hours until his work started?

Plus, at Saturday's his work was always closed, nobody worked that day, unless it was a holiday. But it wasn't.

The more I thought about this, the more I grew confused. What if my father didn't go off to work that day, only somewhere else? What if my mom made up the part about people calling and saying dad died while his truck flipped over on a rainy day?

So then how did my father die?

* * *

**A/N:** I know there isn't much fairy tale in this story yet, but I plan on doing that on later chapters. Now, review if you may be so kind? 


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:** I am getting VERY angry… can't tell you why. Nothing to do with you reviewers though, so don't worry.

**6**

I sat at the foot of the bed reading a book called _Half Human_, a new book I had just gotten. It actually wasn't just one story, it had varieties of them. Like a girl with snakes for hair, a boy with wings, a man who used to be a tree, a mermaid, and much more.

When I read the story of the mermaid, it was pretty amazing and interesting. I liked the other one's too, but not as much as the mermaid one.

I closed the book as I finished it and heard Mina come in with a smile across her face. She held a bag of groceries and placed it on my bed.

"Coral look what I got! A pack of Starburst, Skittles, and—"

"I don't care, " I sighed.

"But I thought you liked them." She said.

"Did you ever know the meaning of 'leave me alone'?" I scolded.

Her smile faded and she took the bag of groceries and placed it over to her bed. She silently open a bag of Skittles and started to eat watching me silently.

I grabbed another book off the shelf. I looked at the cover, _Charlie and the Chocolate Factory_. Boring. I used the love that book when I was little, my father always read it. Now I'm not sure I wanted to read that ever again since it reminded me of my father so much.

I looked through the shelf one by one, no book seemed interesting. I only had eleven books after all. I read all of them practically three or four times.

I sat back on my bed and stared through the window and realized that it was already dark. I looked over at my sister who continued to eat her Skittles.

I was bored, very bored. I looked at the alarm clock and it read 7:46. Still too early to go to bed, but the time didn't matter to me. I was actually tired, so sleep sounded good to me.

I went through the drawer finding my nightgown, and went to the bathroom to change which was just down the hall. As I finished dressing and returned to my room, I noticed my sister was gone.

I looked and saw the grocery bag still remained on her bed and the bag of Skittles. But there was no sign of my sister.

I frowned; I hadn't heard my sister leave. I went to check the living room, not there, only mom sitting on the couch fast asleep with the TV on. I entered the kitchen, no Mina.

I frowned, why was I looking for Mina anyway? Just let her be.

I started to head back to my room; I passed mom's bedroom and stopped. I saw my sister there looking at something.

I walked over to her and knelt down. "Mina, what are you doing here?" I asked.

She didn't reply, but continued to look through some pictures, it appeared to be an album. I peaked over her shoulder to see what she was looking at.

My eyebrows furrowed, she was looking at a picture full of mermaids. It appeared as if an artist drew it. I also noticed that the mermaids were wearing no top. I gasped and grabbed the book away from her.

"Hey!" She cried out in surprise.

I stood up and glared at Mina. "Why are looking at pictures like these?" I scolded.

"It's mine give it back!" She stood up and made a grab for it, but missed.

"Answer my question first."

"That's none of your business!"

"You're too young to look at pictures like these." I said.

"So? You look at them too!" She yelled.

I snarled at her, what a liar! "I do _not_!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Do _too_!" She screamed.

I covered my ears as she made a high pitch scream, I heard mom running towards the room.

My sister gasped as she heard mom staggering in and grabbed the book from my hands. I got surprised at how frantic she seemed when she grabbed the book from me.

Mina hid the book inside a drawer piled with clothes. I glared at her angrily but soon mom walked over to us.

"Wha-what's wrong with the… two of you?" She held a beer bottle in her hand.

"Coral was looking at nasty pictures!" Mina yelled.

I gasped, why was my sister blaming me for what she did?

"Huh? Looking at what?" Mom said.

I clenched my fists and turned around to face my mother. "I saw Mina looking at pictures she wasn't suppose to see. I took it away from her but she wanted it back." I replied as calmly as I could.

"No I didn't! She did it! I saw her, I really did mommy!" Mina argued.

Mom rubbed her forehead trying to clear out things, she walked closer to me and I could smell her sour breath.

"Tell me the truth Coral, did you do it?" She asked.

I stared wide-eyed at mom. She couldn't honestly believe Mina, could she?

"You believe _her_? But I didn't do it, I swear!" I protested.

Mom just shook her head, "Enough garbage, go wash the dishessss."

Mom turned around and left while I stared blankly as she leaved. That was it? Wash the dishes? She used to give me worse punishments before, but maybe she was too drunk to care.

I turned around to look at my sister; she stared at me quietly.

"Why did you do that Mina? Why'd you blame me for it?" I asked.

"All you do is wash dishes," she replied.

I shook my head at her, "It doesn't matter how I get punished, the point is why did you lie?"

She stared at the floor and didn't say anything.

"Answer me Mina! Why?" I insisted.

"I don't know." She mumbled.

I snarled, "Next time you better not blame me for what you do!" I turned around and left.

"Idiot." I muttered under my breath. I entered the kitchen to go and wash dishes when I noticed there weren't any to clean.

"Hm, strange." I replied. Mom had probably forgotten she had already cleaned the dishes.

I decided to just go to bed and sleep. I looked at the grandfather clock in the living room and saw that it was eight o' clock. Still too early, but who cares.

I went back to my room and lay on my bed pulling the covers over me. I stared at the ceiling waiting for sleep to come, but it took a while. I kept on thinking why my sister would lie like that.

I remembered the look on her face as she stared at those pictures in awe. I thought maybe because the mermaids' chests were showing, but for some reason, I don't think it was that. Maybe she seemed fascinated by those mermaids. Her expression was something no one can tell.

And there was something else… remembrance? I don't know, but she had such a strange expression, who knows what she was thinking about.

I started to get drowsy soon and eventually I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. I fell asleep.

I dreamed another nightmare, but this time my father was in it.

I was on a boat, my father's boat. I was crying hard and the boat was out in the middle of the ocean, far from land. And I kept on riding my boat farther away wanting to get away from everything. I watched my nightmare as if I was staring at a TV.

I saw myself screaming and keep on saying, "Why did she die?" Or "Why did she do it!"

The clouds overhead turned dark, the wind grew cold, and the waves rocked hard on the boat. Soon it started to rain eventually becoming a storm.

The boats engine died away, probably lost fuel. I saw myself panic and look through the boat trying to find a paddle. There were none, I was about to cry out in defeat when I saw something in the water. No matter how dark the water was, I still could see something glow in the water.

I walked to the side of the boat and stared down. I squinted trying to see what was causing the water to glow.

The waves hit harder on the boat and I nearly lost my balance. My hair was soaking wet along with my clothes from the rain. But my gaze did not leave the water.

I noticed the glow had faded a little causing a form to appear. I gasped and realized who it was; I was staring right at my father!

"Daddy! Daddy it's me, Coral!" I screamed. I saw myself smile with excitement, but soon the waves grew angrier. The boat nearly flipped over and I screamed. I lost my balance once more, but this time I fell into the water.

I was frantically trying to make it back to the surface, but the waves kept on pushing me under. My arms wailed and the water grew hot. Soon it started to boil causing my skin to turn beat red, my insides were screaming out; I was losing air fast. My heart was slowing its pounding.

I heard a voice in my head and it sent me chills. _Come_, it said, _Come to where you belong._ It kept on repeating itself over and over again.

_Come._

My lungs screamed for air, my vision was turning dark and I saw red dots before my eyes. But I wasn't going to give up. I continued to make my way to the surface using all my will, but instead I somehow was pulled deeper. I was getting tired and I soon realized I wasn't going to make it, I was in the water too deep and the pressure of the seemed to be squeezing me tight.

I let the darkness overcome me, but not before I saw the delight as I glimpsed a pair of cold black eyes staring at me.

I screamed as I woke up from my nightmare. I continued to scream until my sister started to shake me on the shoulders.

"Coral! Coral stop it! It's just a dream!" My sister yelled.

I stopped screaming and shot up in bed, I was breathing hard and sweat trickled down my forehead.

"Coral what happened, are you okay?" My sister asked.

I looked at her, my vision was a little fuzzy and it soon cleared.

"Coral?" Mina said.

"It's nothing Mina, just a nightmare." I closed my eyes trying to calm myself down.

"Oh I've had those before." My sister turned around and left the room continuing what she was doing before as if it wasn't important if I had a nightmare or not.

I looked out the window and realized it was already morning. The sun was up and the day looked great as ever.

I sighed, the dream felt so real, again. I started to realize it was the same dream I had before. Except, there was more to it. Like my father for one and me on the boat. Then I remembered something else; the pair of black eyes staring at me watching me drown. I could still see the delight across its eyes. It seemed so familiar; I think I had seen it before.

I shivered, the room wasn't cold but the thought was frightening. Could my dream mean something? Was that creature I had seen earlier before dangerous? It did try to drown my sister after all.

I sighed and got up from bed to look for what I had to dress. I looked through the drawer and decided to wear a green shirt with blue shorts.

I headed to the bathroom to the take a shower but found it occupied. My sister was singing a song I had never heard of, and I heard the sound of water running from the shower.

I groaned, my sister would take forever! I decided to just dress and then take a shower some time later.

I went back to my room and put on my clothes. As I finished I decided to call Sara to see what she would think about my dream when I tell her.

I took the phone from my night table and dialed her number. It rang once, twice. The third ring her mom picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Hi Mrs. McKinley, it's me Coral, is Sara there?" I asked.

"Oh, hold on." She replied.

I waited for a minute until Sara picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Hi Sara it's me."

"Hey Coral! How's it going?"

"Fine, sort of." I said.

I heard Sara sigh, "It must be hard what happened to your dad, I know I would go crazy if—"

"It's okay Sara, I don't want to talk about that now."

"Oh, okay."

"Listen I called because I wanted to tell you about a dream I've been having."

"A dream? Why?" She asked.

"Well I know I should have told you before, but I keep on seeing this thing. Almost every time I go to the beach I see these black eyes staring at me and—"

"Oh it's probably just some fish Coral, you know how they have black eyes." Sara stated.

"No it's not a fish! Well, half actually—"

"What? Half? You're kidding right? We're not talking about mermaids are we?"

"Merman actually." I replied.

I heard Sara laugh, "Are you sure? It's probably your imagination, mermaids—or merman's whatever—don't exist! Their fairy tales and a myth."

"But I saw it! Really I did! He almost drowned my sister! He has a black tail and these scary looking black eyes."

I heard her sigh, "Coral, it's not real okay? It's your imagination, I would've believed you if I was five since I used to pretend to be one, but not anymore."

"So then what did drown my sister?" I asked.

"Probably caught herself on some seaweed's, that's it! Look I'm sorry for not believing you but it's just not true."

"But I keep on seeing him when I'm drowning! Well, in my dreams though—"

"See? You see him in you _dreams_. Not in real life."

I didn't reply, but I clenched my teeth. My own best friend doesn't believe me!

"I'm not asking you to believe me, I'm only telling the truth," I said through gritted teeth.

"Look I'm sorry, I really am. But maybe we could go to the beach or something and have a little swim you know?"

I slammed the phone down hard. I didn't want to talk to her, or see her. I was telling the truth! I could've sworn I saw that thing! And my dreams do mean something.

But what if it was all my imagination? What if I imagined seeing that thing drown my sister? And the dream was just part of my imagination?

But I couldn't believe it, I couldn't! I wasn't seeing things!

* * *

I know I haven't put down the part where Coral goes to find the mystery of how her dad died. But don't worry! I'll probably put that mystery in the next chapter. 


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:** Chapter seven only? Gosh am I that slow? And only 18 reviews? Why? Well… I know that's still enough…but I'm the kind of person who wants _a lot_ of reviews! And don't we all? So please please please please! Can I get past 22 by this chapter?

**7**

I stared at the phone on the night table thinking about what Sara had said. My best friend, the one I could rely on about anything doesn't believe me! If Sara doesn't believe me, no one will. But then I thought about Mina, how she stared at those mermaids, maybe she would believe me. Although she had a mind that was too young to understand, I still probably could talk to her about it.

I sighed and sat at the foot of the bed pondering. What if tonight I would have the same dream as before? I shivered; I didn't want to remember it! I could still feel the water around me as it pushed me down. Why did that dream feel so real? Of all my life, none of my dreams ever felt as real as this one.

Did it mean something? Surely it would be strange if you had the same dream twice. Maybe these dream had something to do with my father. Was he trying to tell me something? Perhaps it had to do with the mystery of how he died.

I chewed on my nails nervously. It was a habit I had when I was really nervous.

I still couldn't believe that my father died from the truck accident. My mother could've lied, but why would she? What was the reason? Did she have something to do with my father's death?

I cried out in frustration, so many questions! But none I could answer.

I stood up and started to pace, I thought about confronting my mother and asking if she had lied about my father's death. But I decided now wasn't the time. Maybe if I found little things of my own, then I could ask mom about it.

My mind felt jammed up right now, there were so many things I had to do, and I didn't know where to start! Maybe Mina's problem was easier, I could just ask her about that picture of those mermaids and she would answer me truthfully.

I opened my bedroom door and walked out heading to the backyard. I searched for Mina but all I found was the doll mom had just bought for her hanging upside down on a tree. It was tied to a piece of rope from its legs. Why would Mina do that to her new doll?

I went back in and searched the whole house; there was no Mina. _How come every time I look for Mina I can't find her?_ I pondered.

I went out the front door to see mom watering the sidewalk. I stared open mouth at her, she was a mess! Her hair was twisted in all sorts of places, she didn't even comb it! Which was a BIG surprise since she cared about her hair so much.

Her face had more wrinkles, forgot to even wear make-up. She wore a robe, that's all! And why was she watering the sidewalk for crying out loud! Had she lost her mind?

"Mom…mom what are you doing?" I asked puzzled. She didn't move from her spot, didn't blink an eye, just stood there like a statue watering the sidewalk. I watched as the water was spread across the lawn moving over to the neighbors yard.

Mom didn't wear any shoes, her feet were already wet and I saw the veins in her legs so clearly.

"Mom what are you doing?" I repeated.

I saw her blink at last, she seemed dazed for a while. "What? Huh? What was that?" She turned around to look at me and dropped the hose making the water spread across the grass this time.

"Mom…it's just…." I couldn't help it, she was so pale and frail looking, I had never seen her like this before.

She slowly went to turn off the hose and came walking towards me.

"Honey I don't know what's wrong with me, I'm just a little tired that's all." I was about to reply but she turned and headed back to the house.

I saw her eyes though, they were so red, too red actually. And her voice sounded so far away it was as if she didn't know whom she was talking too.

I went back in and saw her lying face down on the sofa snoring loudly. I couldn't believe how fast she fell asleep, but then I noticed the photo she was holding. The picture of my father with my mom smiling. She had the photo clutched tightly against her chest as if she never wanted to let go.

I felt sorry for her right at that moment, she misses dad so much. I looked at her face one more time, she seemed stressed and I wondered if she needed a therapist.

I looked at the photo she held one more time and fought back tears. I remembered that snap shot so clearly. It was just a few months ago when dad took mom to a fancy restaurant celebrating their seventeenth anniversary.

I thought it was best just to leave mom alone for now so she could rest. I headed out the door once more when suddenly the doorbell rang. I wondered who it could be.

I glanced at mom and saw she hadn't moved at all, still in her deep sleep.

I shrugged and walked toward the door and opened it. I couldn't hold back my gasp, Matt stood in the doorway holding a single red rose. My eyebrows furrowed and I glared at him.

"Uh… is your mom home?" He asked. I tried my best not to make a disgusted face; he smelled beer all over.

"She's sleeping so leave her alone." I snapped.

He took a step back and put his hands up as if to surrender. "Well gee sorry, didn't know I'd get that attitude."

"Well? What are you waiting for? Go!" I ordered impatiently.

"Hey I ain't leaving until I see your mother."

"Well too bad! You can't! So just go!" I shut the door and locked it before he could reply.

I walked toward the window to see if he was gone. I saw him stand there for a moment then just shrug and leave. I sighed in relief; thank goodness he was gone!

I looked to see mom stir in her sleep, but she remained with her eyes closed. I smiled, at least she hadn't woken up.

I thought about making myself some ice tea when the doorbell rang again. I cried out in exasperation. What did that moron want now?

I strode angrily to the door and flew it open. "All right bud I told you—" but then I stopped when I looked down at my sister and gasped. She was soaked all over from top to bottom, she had a small cut on her chin which wasn't bleeding too badly.

"What the? Mina? What happened to you?" I asked.

She stared down at the ground shyly and hesitated before answering. "I was going for a swim at the beach."

"What? Alone? Are you crazy?" I replied shrilly. How could she? What if she drowned like last time?

"I saw something in the water." She said.

My eyes lit up when I heard this, "Really? Was it a fish?"

"Not really." She muttered.

I suddenly had a feeling of what she was about to say. I pulled her inside and gestured her to our room. I pushed her as quickly as I could toward our room eager to know what she was about to say.

As we entered, I shut the door behind me. I knew no one would hear us since mom was asleep, but I still felt better if I closed the door.

I turned to look at Mina. "Okay, okay, what about that scar?" I asked. I wondered if she got hurt by someone—or something.

"Oh it's nothing," she shrugged, "I slipped on some rocks and cut my chin, my fault."

I sighed and made a annoyed look on my face, typical Mina. "Okay go change in to some dry clothes before we talk." I ordered, Mina quickly looked through her drawer and pulled out a pink dress with sunflowers decorated on it. She sped off out the door, probably going to the bathroom and in less than a minute she was back wearing her dry clothes.

"All right, what did you see?" I asked it almost shrilly.

She bit at the end of her thumb, one of her nervous habits. "Some guy in the ocean."

"A guy? In the ocean? So?" I probably knew what she meant.

"Well not _some_ guy, he had a tail—of fish tail! But he got no legs! And I think he's some sea king! Like that merman king from that one movie! But he got some scary looking—"

"You saw _what_?" I couldn't believe it! So I wasn't imagining it after all!

"He-he talked to me Coral! He talked to me! Can you believe it? He actually—"

"What did he say?" I interrupted. Someone dangerous as him, who knows what he could've done to my sister.

"He talked in my head! Isn't that cool!" Mina replied excitedly.

"What did he say?" I repeated sternly.

"He asked about you." She replied.

_What? He asked about me? _I thought, _Why?_

"He asked what was your name."

"And? You told him?"

"Well yeah, so?"

"What! How could you?"

"It wasn't a big deal! Besides, that's all he asked for." She said.

I stared open mouthed at her, "That's it? But why would he ask my name?"

"Beats me." She shrugged.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing! Why would he ask my name?

"Hey! How do I know if you're lying?" I asked.

My sister stared at me seriously, "Why would I lie? I know you believe me! I know you saw him before!"

I stared at her in disbelief, how did she know? Mina stared back at me as if reading my expressions, "He told me."

I stood frozen and couldn't find any words to say. "But-you-how? I mean-what?"

"He told me." She repeated slowly.

"But-but I thought you said he didn't say anything else."

"No! I mean yeah but…"

"What else did he say? What else did he say!" I asked shrilly.

Mina looked up at me and smiled gleefully, "Hey let's play tea party! You be the guest and I'll be the host!"

"No Mina wait—"

"Then we'll play Barbies, and we'll paint, and sing a song!" She replied brightly.

What? How could she forget our topic so fast? I was about to reply back at her but she stood up and pulled out a box filled with her Barbies and placed it onto the floor. She smiled gleefully again and started to set up the dolls.

"Mina please what else did he say?" I asked gently.

"You'll be Stacy," She said without paying much attention to what I said. She handed me a doll with brown hair wearing a blue jacket and a red skirt with no shoes.

I looked at the doll in disappointment and placed it back into the box. Mina looked at me puzzled, "What's wrong? I thought you wanted to play?"

"No I didn't, I wanted you to answer my question first!" I yelled.

Mina's lower lip started to tremble and soon enough she escaped into loud sobs.

I groaned, why does she have to be like this? She didn't stop sobbing until I came up with an idea to shut her up.

"Hey Mina! We'll play chess! How's that? I'll teach you." I replied. She stopped crying and stared at me for a moment then smiled, like nothing happened at all.

"Okay," she replied.

> > > > > > > > > > > > >

"No the queen moves wherever it wants." I said. I had been teaching Mina chess for the last hour, and she still had trouble understanding.

"As many steps as it wants?" She asked for the last fifteen times.

"Yes."

"What about that one?" She pointed at the Bishop.

I sighed wearily, "I thought I told you that already."

"I forgot."

"It moves diagonally!" I cried out.

She chewed at the end of her thumb nervously and looked at the chessboard intently. "What about that?"

"That's a Night." I answered.

"Really? It looks like a horse."

"Then it's a Horse! Who cares?"

"Okay… I think I get it!"

"Good, I can't stand going over the same pieces fifty more times." I replied sarcastically.

"Let's play! I wanna play!" She screamed hysterically.

I rolled my eyes and made my first move with my Pawn. She excitedly moved hers, the Pawn right in front of the Night. I moved out my Night making an L shape and she mover her Bishop.

We played for about seven minutes when Mina called out 'Check.' I only had a Pawn and Night left. Mina only had lost five pieces. Most of them were Pawns.

I shook my head in disbelief, Mina's first game and she was beating me!

I moved my King over and she mover her queen and called out 'Check' again. I nervously moved it back and she took away my pawn with her Queen. I moved my King again and she moved over her Bishop.

She grinned, "Check Mate."

"What? No way!" I checked my King to see if I could move anywhere else, there was none.

"Awwww poor Coral." Mina cooed.

I only shrugged and congratulated her when I noticed something odd. Sticking out of the bottom mattress was a picture. A picture with a girl with blue hair, blue eyes, a blue fin, and her hair sparkled. A picture of a mermaid with eyes the color of the sea. That picture looked so familiar…

I gasped when I suddenly remembered. I had that reflection in the water before! And she looked so much like me.

"Mina…where'd you get this?" I stood up and grabbed the photo sticking out of the mattress.

Mina stood up and looked to see what I was looking at. She peered closer and her eyes shot wide open. She grabbed the picture from my hands before I could do anything and clutched it tightly across her chest.

"Mina what are you doing?"

"It's mine." She said coldly.

"Let me look at it, please Mina—"

"He gave it to me!"

"What? Who?"

"Miruko!"

"Who?"

"The merman!" She shrieked.

Astonished by her reply, I was about to ask how did she know his name when she turned around and sped off with the picture. "Hey!" I yelled and ran after her. She ran out the front door and ran down the street heading to the ocean. I screamed after her to slow down but she was pretty fast. After chasing her for what felt like an hour, she stopped right in front of the beach.

She turned to look at me and I stopped running and came to a sudden stop. Mina stared back at me with the most strangest expression, looking at me quietly.

"He said he wanted to meet you." She said barely above a whisper.

"Mina, please tell me what's going on. And please tell me why you have that picture." I asked gently.

"I told you! He gave it to me!" She screamed.

"But why can't I have a look at it?" I asked.

Mina was about to reply but stopped. I thought she wasn't going to answer until she spoke quietly, "I see you as her."

"What?"

"I see you in my dreams with him."

"Mina, what are you saying?"

"You're always drowning." She said. "And I saw how daddy died."

I was too shocked to speak. Nothing made sense, what was Mina trying to tell me? Did she really know how dad died? I didn't understand anything at all! Suddenly I felt a presence coming from the ocean; I turned around to look. And I saw the cold pair of black eyes staring at me.

* * *

I can't update this story for a week because I will be doing some things. Action will be coming up soon too! But please review if you want to know what happens! 


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:** I have decided to make this story rated T. Just in case, nothing nasty will happen, I promise! And I added mystery for the genre, but I will also change the genre soon too.

**8**

I stared at the ocean a little while longer not taking my gaze off those black eyes. It stared back at me not doing anything. I seemed daze for a while but then snapped back to reality.

"Tell me what's going on Mina." I asked. I turned to look at her but she was staring out in the ocean as well. I looked back at the ocean and soon I grew angry. What did that thing want? Why was he always at the beach when I'm there? Can't he just go away!

I scowled and grabbed Mina's shoulders roughly. I took long strides as I left the beach with Mina struggling under my grip screaming to let go. I couldn't take it anymore, I had enough of his games!

"Let go!" Mina screamed.

"Shut-up!" I yelled back at her annoyed.

Suddenly my eyes shot wide open in surprise as I heard a voice in my head.

"_Do you want to know how your father died?"_ A voice said. I cried out and let go of my sister as it spoke. I whirled around looking for what made that voice. "Who did that?" I screamed, "where are you!"

I frantically looked around searching when my eyes landed on the pair of black eyes as it drew nearer towards the ocean shore. I was breathing hard and couldn't seem to stop staring as the figure approached slowly. I suddenly found myself walking towards the ocean shore. Tall rocks loomed in front of me and I found myself climb it as I reached at the very end of the rocks gazing directly down at the water. I found it hard to believe that I reached this spot. I could've stopped myself, but I didn't want to, it was as if I wanted to end up here.

The waves grew steady and the water seemed to rock gentler now. I stared back at my reflection from the water seeing my brown hair drop around my face and my brown eyes wide in fear and excitement at the same time. Soon, a figure formed under the water making me glimpse its dark fish tail and a body of a man. His eyes looked up to mine, with his cold stare that held emotions no one could find in his black eyes. His pupil seemed to disappear by the dark color making it creepy in a sort of way.

I now could see his face so clearly, and there was nothing frightening about it at all. The only thing that gave his kind face away was his eyes. He stared at me for a while as his long black hair swayed under the water slowly. I couldn't stop looking at him, he was truly amazing, nothing I had ever seen before.

"_Coral's the name isn't it?"_ I yelped in surprise as that voice in my head was back. I stared down at him and with my mouth wide open as I realized he was speaking, only he hadn't even moved his mouth!

I was on my knees kneeling over the rocks edge when I stood straight up aware of what was going on.

"H-how did y-you do that?" I stuttered in shock.

He didn't answer but stared back at me quietly. I just noticed how mysterious his gaze looked.

I heard footsteps run up behind me. "Where is he? Did you talk to him? Isn't he so cool?" Mina's excited words rung out in the air. I turned to look at her with a surprised look on my face as I completely forgot about her. As I looked back at the water I noticed he was gone and swimming off in the distance.

"Hey wait! Come back!" I yelled waving my hand for him to stop. He kept on swimming and after a far distance he stopped and stared at me once more before disappearing under the dark water.

I sighed and put my hand down. I glared at Mina for ruining everything.

"Did you see him?" She asked with a sparkle across her eyes.

"Didn't I mention for you to shut-up before?" I walked passed her heading home with Mina close behind me. "But you did see him didn't you?" She kept on asking while I walked home. I didn't seem to hear her question as I was thinking deeply about what just happened. I took slow strides home looking up at the bright clouds as I pondered until I suddenly stopped.

"Mina can I ask you something?" I asked her, but I don't think she heard because she asked the same question again. I groaned in reply but she asked the question again making me way too annoyed.

"Yes! I did! Happy? Now I need to ask you something!" I bellowed at her.

"Really? You saw him? Isn't he cool? I wish I could have those—"

"I said I need to ask you something!" I yelled again.

Mina calmed a bit and stared back at me questionably waiting for what I was going to ask. I spoke slowly, "Do you remember what his name was?"

My sister smiled, "Miruko."

I lifted an eyebrow confused, "What kind of name is that?"

"I thought I already told you his name."

"Well, I forgot."

"You shouldn't forget—"

"Just answer the question." I asked irritated. Mina put her hands on her hips as if she was mad, "How should I know? He didn't tell me everything."

I only nodded and continued to trot down the sidewalk thinking when I realized something else. I grabbed Mina's shoulders and made her stare straight into my eyes.

"Mina," I began, "you said you knew how dad died. How did he die?"

Mina struggled under my tight grip not answering, so I repeated the same thing a little more harshly.

"Let me go! Help!" Mina screamed. Since we were in a neighborhood I saw a couple who were walking down the street look at us puzzled. I thought I saw an old lady peek behind her curtain from an old house seeing what the commotion was all about.

"Shh! Stop screaming!" I insisted. But Mina continued to scream at the top of her lungs. So I let go and she took a step back from me. "I only saw how he died from the truck accident like mommy told us!" And she ran off heading home.

I had a feeling Mina lied, I saw it across her eyes. Mina always had a specific expression when she didn't tell the truth. I sighed and I started to walk home staring at the ground sadly when an idea came over me. I realized there was a way to know if my father died from the truck accident or not. Of course! Why hadn't I thought of it before? I knew my idea would work, so I turned to another direction running full speed to where I was about to head.

The place wasn't too far, six blocks maybe, but a short distance to me. I passed some old tire shops and car dealers making houses disappear far behind me. I arrived at the place I wanted in fifteen minutes. I noticed the place was open having busy workers come in and out from the old building. I stared at the two-story white building then at the workers. I looked up at a label painted across the top of the building. _Knight Transportation_, the place my father worked for so long. I started to head inside while staring as a load of trucks prepared to bring packages. I saw workers busily taking load of boxes into the building while the truck drivers formed a group laughing and talking as they just came back from a long trip. I recognized one of the truck drivers and walked over to him.

"Excuse me! Mr. Lee can I talk to you?" I asked as I arrived at the group of truckers.

A tall man with a potbelly turned to look at me and smiled when he realized who I was. "Coral! What a surprise! I didn't know you'd be here!" He cried surprised by my sudden appearance. Some truck drivers stared at me confused others just chatted away laughing.

"Uh, hi I came to ask a question." I said. My plan was to ask him to tell me if anyone worked on the Saturday my father died.

"Sure! Anything kid!" He replied, I hated it when he called me 'kid.' Every single time he saw me he would call me that.

"In private though." I had to yell over the loud noise as a truck just passed near by.

"Oh sure!" He walked over to a spot where no one was nearby while I followed and turned to look at me waiting for what I was going to ask.

"Last Saturday, did anyone work that day?" I asked.

His eyebrows furrowed, "Well yes, some people."

"What about my dad?" I asked.

He grew surprised, "Your dad? Of course not! He never works on Saturday's!"

"But did you see him come to work that day?" I asked.

He shook his head, "I'm not sure, you'll have to ask the boss about that."

"Can you take me to him?"

"Well, of course!"

He led me into the building and I gazed around the place. There were so many machinery, and so many workers. The place was so loud I don't think anyone could hear over the noise. Mr. Lee led me up some stairs down a fancy hallway and to a office saying 'Mr. Freedman' and under those words were written 'boss'.

"Well here you go! Tell me if you need anything else okay?" He said as he opened the door for me and I simply smiled and made my way inside. I looked around the place, which was full of pictures and couches with a desk in the middle of the room. The place was much quieter than the machinery area. I looked to see a man wearing a nice suit look up at me wearing glasses behind his desk. He was bald but had few hairs on top of his head.

"Can I help you?" He asked as he looked up from his paperwork. I swallowed nervously and cleared my throat.

"I was here to ask you about my father if he worked—"

" His name please." He interrupted.

"Jack Hollister." I answered.

"He no longer works here." He said.

"I know, but I was just going to ask one question." The guy was a bit annoying to tell you the truth.

"Then ask me."

I spoke, "I wondered if Jack Hollister, my dad, worked last Saturday."

He raised his eyebrows at me and didn't reply for a while. I shifted from one foot to the other as I was standing. I wanted to sit down but I think the guy had to give permission first. But he never did.

He took off his glasses and stared hard at me. "I'm sorry about his death, he was a great worker." I didn't hear any sympathy in his voice however; he just said it as if he didn't care.

"Uh, did he work last Saturday?" I repeated. I saw his eyebrows furrow, "No, he never worked last Saturday, he died, remember?"

Of course I remember you idiot! I thought. "But I heard he died from a storm when he was riding his truck." 

The guy just looked at me as if I was the most stupid person he ever met. "Where did you hear that?"

I furrowed my eyebrows, is wasn't true what mom told me?

"My mother told me." I answered.

I think he was going to burst out laughing because I could see him trying to hold himself before he burst. "Well, your mother lied," He said, "your father died from drowning." My eyes shot wide open, drowned? How could that be? My father knew how to swim well, so why would he drown?

"W-what do you mean?" I stuttered. He sighed and shook his head; "Somebody saw his car parked at the lot near the beach. The person saw him get out of the car and simply head towards the beach. Next thing you know he was swimming far out in the ocean during a _storm_. He drowned of course, and I'd call that suicide." He explained, "police let the matters stay that way since the witness saw the whole thing. Your father simply wanted to do suicide. Why? I don't know."

I gasped. I thought that I didn't understand what he just said, but then the words started to sink in. I was too shocked to do anything. My mind seemed to run cold and I thought my heart stopped. I stood frozen in my spot unmoving, without even blinking an eye. I tried to find words to reply but all I did was stutter.

"I-I…I didn't…" And then it hit me cold, I suddenly knew how my father died, and by who. But my head grew dizzy and my vision was fading. I fell into darkness.

* * *

**A/N: **I think my action will start… let's see… around the eleventh or twelfth chapter. Yeah, that'll do. I'll try updating faster by the way. 


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N:** I must hurry, I have tons of homework to do! So please forgive my short chapter.

**9**

I awoke and slowly opened my eyes to see bright lights up on the ceiling. My vision was blurry and took time to focus well. My mind was spinning and somehow I believe I was lying on top of a bed.

I tried sitting up but then I saw my mother gently telling me to lie back down.

"The doctor said you need more rest." She said. I blinked once, twice and gaped astonished at my mother. She looked even worse than before, their were dark circles under her eyes, her hair looked as if it hadn't been washed for weeks, and her clothes were so dirty she appeared as if she slept in mud.

"W-what happened." I asked, my voice came out raspy and I coughed.

Mom just patted my head trying to comfort me, "Nothing sweetie, just had a accident that's all."

"What kind of accident?" I asked, then I slowly remembered what had happened. I saw myself in an office with a bald guy and I was asking questions about my father until he told me…

I shot straight up in bed and glared at my mother. "You never told me dad died from drowning." I said almost coldly.

My mom gasped and couldn't hold back her surprise, "But-but… who told you?"

"Don't think I'm stupid mom! I can find out things real fast if you really want to know. Just tell me, why did you lie?"

Mom didn't reply for a while until she spoke slowly, "I… can't tell you."

"Tell me! I have to know!" I insisted.

I saw as if mom's gray eyes fade away replacing by a memory she was just remembering. But she remained unspoken.

"You know something don't you, but you won't tell me." I guessed. She still didn't say anything but remained frozen in her spot.

"There's a creature out in the ocean that you always have known." I began. Mom slowly looked at me, as her eyes grew wide open.

"He was after dad wasn't he? He wanted to kill him." My mom shook her head in disbelief. "How do you know?" She whispered.

"I've met him before, but why did he want to kill dad mom? Please tell me."

I saw my mom begin to speak but then no words came out. She seemed deep in thought, but this time I waited until she spoke.

"You'll have to find that out for yourself." She answered finally. I opened my mouth to reply but mom quickly got up and left my room. I wondered what mom had meant. Was there a dark secret about my father that she didn't want to tell me? Did my dad do something wrong or did someone haunt his past? Mom had said I had to find that out for myself, but how? I couldn't just go up to that merman and ask him 'Hey I have a question, why did you kill my dad?' That wasn't possible.

I saw a shadow mover around the corner and turned to see Mina staring at me hidden behind the door. She had heard everything mom and I were discussing.

"Hey! What are you doing back there?" I asked her. She hid deeper behind the door and I got up and walked over to her. I pulled her out from behind the door gripping her arms hard waiting for an explanation.

"Nothing, just playing." She muttered.

"You heard what I said with mom."

My sister made a face that appeared confused. "Huh? I don't know what you're talking about."

"Of course you do, now tell me, why were you eavesdropping?"

"Because."

"Because why?" Mina only shrugged her shoulders.

"You're hiding something, tell me." She shook her head, I saw tears form at the edge of her eyes, she was going to cry any minute. I suddenly had an idea to ask her in a joking way.

I tickled her belly and she giggled, "Come on tell me." I smiled just to assure I was playing around. She smiled and I ticked her again, she laughed so hard I think she was going to cry from laughter. I tickled her some more and repeated my question playfully.

"No…stop it!" She laughed and fell on the floor to make me stop tickling her.

"Okay, okay! Some merman knew your father." She said gasping for breath as I stopped tickling.

"Knew dad? Why?" I still kept to mood lighten up a bit.

"Oh you know, dad wasn't human until he met mom, wanted to give up his old life and marry her. Things like that."

I tried to hide my surprise before I burst out yelling for her to explain more. But I still managed to keep a joking mood.

"How do you know that?"

My sister smiled. "Cuz I'm smart and I get cool dreams about it and you don't." She giggled at me.

I tried to smile at her, "And so why did the merman dude hate dad?"

She sighed, "How should I know! I'm not Ms. Genius ya know."

I tried to reply back but couldn't find any words when I heard the front door slam. I looked at my sister and she stared back at me wondering how mom would leave outside looking like that. We both knew we had to follow her, she had drunk to many beers lately.

Mina and I made our way towards the front door and stepped out of the house. We didn't see mom anywhere in sight.

Mina sighed in exasperation. "Well I'm going back inside, mom probably just went for a walk that's all." I heard her open the front door and step inside while I still stayed where I was. Somehow I had a feeling something wasn't right. I decided to go find mom.

I walked to the liquor store near our house and found mom wasn't there. I checked the park and only saw two kids playing on the playground with their mom sitting on a bench watching them bored. I looked around some neighborhoods until I decided to check the beach. It wasn't a good idea, mom hated the beach, but I had no other option.

The beach was close by; I walked for about five minutes that was all. I noticed no one was there, but there was a reason why. There was no beach here, only a cliff with the ocean at the bottom. It was actually very dangerous here, the wave were higher and rougher here. Teenagers dared each other to come and surf at this place. None survived.

I saw a figure standing at the edge of the cliff. I thought I recognized the long white dress the figure was wearing.

"Mom?" I called out. From the back of the person, it looked like mom. I walked closer towards the figure, just about twenty feet away. "Mom?" I repeated.

The head slowly turned and I saw my mother look at me sadly. Her cheeks were wet from crying and she looked pale and weak, it was as if the wind could carry her away from the looks.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

Mom slowly closed her eyes and took a deep breath and stared back at me. "He's going to get you too." She said.

"What? What are you talking about?" I asked, I suddenly grew worried.

"I'm so sorry." Mom replied barely above a whisper. I couldn't understand what she meant.

Mom looked back at the horizon seeing the sun set slowly under the sea. She then stared down at the water sadly.

I suddenly realized what was going to happen. I screamed her name and ran towards her but she fell from the top of the cliff falling into the water with sharp rocks on the bottom.

"Nooooo!" I screamed, I stared down of the cliff and saw blood appear in the water along on some rocks. Waves rocked hard causing it to disappear into the sea.

I couldn't breathe, nor move. It happened too fast. I felt myself crying and screaming my mother's name over and over again.

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I need more reviews. So if you want to see the rest of this story, than review, or I won't continue at all. 


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: **:grins: I am so evil. Oh and sorry for the slow updation, I have tons of homework… again. That's why I made this chapter longer for my slow updation. Alas! I have come to my tenth chapter!

**10**

_A week later_

They couldn't find her, they've tried for the last week, but no sign of my mother's body. It was horrible when you thinked about it, a funeral with a coffin, but no body in it. Only my mother's favorite things, a golden watch, some necklace with stars decorated around it, which dad had given to mom. A photo of my dad and my mother, the one mom always had wherever she went. A hairpin, and a cross. There weren't many things my mom favored dearly, only a couple of items like the ones in the coffin.

But I couldn't accept what they had placed in the coffin, I needed my mother their, not her possessions! I couldn't relax, what if my mother didn't rest in peace? I just couldn't take it, my mother's body was out in the ocean to who knows where.

I heard Mina's soft cries beside me, I felt tears flow freely down my cheek. Not only was my mother not there, but we were orphans. No one to take care of us, maybe a few family members we had, but I don't think they wanted to adopt us.

I closed my eyes and began to picture what had happened at the beach where I last saw my mother. I remembered her last words, why did she say those things? And why did she kill herself? I began to see that mom did really love dad, perhaps that is why she killed herself.

Mina sobbed and clutched my arm tightly weeping on it. I saw my cousins from California walk over to me. I recognized Calvin, Mary, Joel, and my aunt Laura.

"Oh Coral, I'm so sorry." Cried Laura, I looked up at her sadly. She was my mom's sister, and I knew mom hated her just as she did. They had fights together ever since they were little, and I don't think Laura held a little sympathy for my mom at all. Well, maybe a little since she was her sister. As for my cousins, they didn't even recognize my mother, so they didn't cry.

I tried to smile back at her; she sat down right next to me. Aunt Laura wiped the tears from her eyes and spoke, "Now, I know I wasn't a good sister to your mom, but I still do love her. She was the only sister I had, and I care deeply for her." She said.

I stared at her quietly and believed her. I know how she felt, even if you did hate your own sister, you would still love her no matter what.

I sighed and stared back at the coffin, a sob escaped my throat as I realized once more that my mother wasn't there. It's like a stab through your heart to realize your own mother is out somewhere in the sea.

I heard Sara behind my shoulder and looked up. She smiled at me just to reassure everything would be okay. Aunt Laura also looked up and saw Sara. She greeted her with a smile.

"Can I talk to Coral for a moment?" Sara asked to Aunt Laura. She nodded and scooted a little down the bench so Sara could sit next to me.

"Hey I know you've got no mother or father Coral," Sara explained as she sat next to me. "My mom and dad were thinking if you could come live with us." She whispered.

Mina heard though and stared back at Sara happily. "Really? You would? Can we Coral? Please?" Mina begged.

I glared back at Mina to see how happy she was while I was eating my heart out. "I don't know." I answered.

I guess Aunt Laura heard what Sara had said and glared at her. I think she wanted to adopt Mina and me first, but I couldn't. I just can't move away from where I lived all my life.

"Come on Coral, at least you wouldn't move to another city." Sara suggested.

I looked back at her and made a small smile, "Let me think about it."

Sara seemed satisfied and leaned back against the bench to see the priest walk in front of the coffin and began to pray. It was awkward for me since there was no one in that coffin only some items.

I listened carefully to what the priest said. He didn't know my mother well, so the only thing he said was what a nice and loving person she was.

I sighed and stared at my hands. I realized I had been clenching them so hard this whole time for that it was deep red.

I saw four people come and close the coffin. Everyone stood up and as the coffin passed the isle, people walked behind the coffin.

As the coffin was brought outside, I stared as they put it in the hoarse. I tried not to cry, really, but sob after sob escaped my throat.

_Next Day_

They buried the coffin. And they still hadn't found my mother's body. I don't think they ever would, but now I stood outside staring out of a window seeing kids run around the playground. I was at a orphanage, and I hated the place. The nuns here were kind and gentle, but the place was too noisy. I wanted peace and quiet to think through things over.

I sighed and sat down on a chair. I watched as some kids played a puzzle game on the floor with Mina along with them. I guess Mina forgot about the funeral too quickly, and I hated it. She smiled and laughed as a little boy about Mina's age cracked up a joke.

I went to pick up a book from a shelf. It read _Sirena_, and on the front cover was a mermaid. She looked pretty sad however. I looked at the back cover and read that it was about a mermaid who was looking for love. And some other stuff like that, I thought it was interesting and sat back down on the couch to read the story.

After what seemed like two hours I finished the story and thought it was very good. It was sad however how in the end the mermaid's love had to leave her. I sighed and sat back in the soft chair, I glanced outside and saw that it was dark. I looked to see if Mina was still playing the puzzle game, she wasn't. As a matter of fact no one was around. I looked at the clock and saw it was nine thirty. Did everyone go to bed during this hour?

I saw a light approach me and looked up to see a nun walk over to me with a smile. "It's time for bed dear." She said.

My eyebrows furrowed, she called me 'dear' as if I was a small little girl.

"Can I stay longer?" I asked politely.

She shook her head and smiled, "No dear, everyone is off to bed, now your turn."

I sighed and stood up to put the book back where I got it. I left the room and started walking down a hallway. The nun followed close behind and I frowned, I could find my own room. I reached the second story and came upon my room. I opened it to find kids my age sleeping peacefully. There were three bunks and mine was out in the far corner. I quietly went over to my bunk and slipped inside its covers. I glanced up to see the nun smile at me then close the door locking it. Mina didn't share a room with me; she shared a room with some kids her own age.

I closed my eyes making a silly imagination in my head about the book I had just finished reading. Every time I finished a book, I would start making wild imaginations of what could've happened in the book if I was the character.

After about a minute of imagining about the book I heard people climb out of their beds. My eyes shot wide open as I saw the kids walk over to me. There were two girls about fifteen who were twins with dark brown hair, another girl about my age with blond curls, and a boy about thirteen with shaggy black hair.

"Hey look! It's the new stupid girl!" I heard on of the girls with blond curls say.

I sat up and wondered what was their problem. I thought they were sleeping, but I guess they did it on purpose so when the nun appeared she won't order them not to fool around.

The boy snickered at me and I frowned. Why couldn't they leave me alone?

The girl with blond curls made another remark, "So did your parents just die? Or maybe your dad went to prison? Or your mom cheated on dad and got killed from her boyfriend? Maybe even your father—"

"Shut up." I interrupted.

I saw the two twins giggle and the girl with blond curls stared at me angrily. "No one tells me what to do." She snarled, "Especially not some stupid girl like you."

I glared at her and clenched my fists. Where they going to bother me the whole night? If they were, then I had to do something about it. I remembered my grandma saying if you ever showed your weakness, the enemy wouldn't ever stop coming after you. And I knew I couldn't do that, or they might not stop bothering me.

I stood up and stared face to face at the girl. She was a little taller than I was.

"I could tell you to shut up as much as I want to, or I'll make you." I scowled.

I saw the twins gasp as they heard this and looked over at the girl with blond curls wondering what she would do. I saw her glare at me and then grin. "Know what I'm going to do?"

I wasn't afraid, honestly. But I wondered what she had in mind as she pulled out a spray paint can. As the others saw this they went and pulled there's out too. I began to think that whatever the blond curled girl did everyone else would do. Just like a captain and its soldiers.

"How about a little makeover?" The girl said.

I frowned and saw her shake the bottle of spray paint and aimed it at me. They were going to spray me? I started to laugh, I don't know why, but I thought the girl would've done something much more awful.

"What are you laughing at?" She said.

I stopped laughing and looked at her, my mouth twitched, but I managed to stop laughing. "You're going to spray me? That's it?"

I saw the girl stare at me confused. I guess that every time another newcomer came they would get scared of her and scream from fright. I found it hilarious however.

But the girl just shook her head and sprayed at me right in the eye. I shrieked as I felt it sting, and I clutched it crying out. It hurt so much!

I reopened my eyes to see everyone laugh and start spraying all over me. They sprayed my hair, my mouth (luckily it was closed) all over my face, clothes, everything.

I screamed the whole time until I grabbed the girl with blond curls by the hair. She shrieked and I tugged hard on her hair. She screamed and kept on yelling 'let go!'

I pulled harder as I felt the others grab my arms so I could let go. One of the twins sprayed my eyes so I could stop. But my eyes were closed.

I tugged so hard the girl was screaming her lungs out. I soon saw the door fly open with nuns run into the room. They made me let go of the girl and I looked to see that I had grabbed a fistful of hair.

I saw a large piece of hair dangling from the side of the girls face. I gasped as I realized she was wearing a wig, but I guess she had it glued on her head or taped real well because I saw a little blood on her forehead.

"What in the name is going on here?" One nun cried out. They looked at me and saw I was painted all black.

"It's her fault! She attacked me and they tried stopping her!" The girl yelled accusing me.

I gasped, "No I didn't! They were spray painting me in the eye!" I yelled. I think that sounded weird when I said that.

"No, she attacked _me_! I told you they were trying to stop her! Right guys?" She said looking at the others. They nodded their heads agreeing with her.

"Well, I think this is highly unexceptable Coral. I'm afraid you're going to have to come with me." Said one of the nuns.

I clenched my jaws and stood up angrily. "It's not my fault!" I burst out, "Who do you think you are, huh? Some nun who believes innocent children who aren't what they seem? Hell! I hate this place!"

I saw the nuns gasps when I said hell. I was just angry, they knew my parents had just died and they were treating me this way!

I shoved the girl and a nun out of the way and took off running down the hall. I heard yells behind me but I ignored them. I ran down the stairs and out the front door.

Outside it was dark and appeared that it would rain soon, but I didn't care. I headed towards the docks since it was only a block away. As I arrived, row after row of boats loomed in front of me. I spotted my dad's and ran to it. I climbed on and turned on the engine as it made an angry roar. I took hold of the boats wheel and headed out to sea.

_It's all mom's fault!_ I screamed in my head, _If she hadn't killed herself none of this would have happened!_

I was blind from tears flowing freely. I missed my dad so much, I wanted him to sit right next to me telling what a awful boat driver I was. I wanted him to tell me how I was a good fisher, like he used to when we went fishing.

I cried harder as I thought about this. And then I remembered my mom, how mean she was. But now I realized she had a dark past, a past she had hidden from everyone so long.

"Why did you die!" I suddenly screamed out. "Why did she do it." I whispered to myself.

I wanted to get away from everything, away from people, civilization, everything. I think I was losing my mind because I kept on repeating things.

"Why did she die! Why did she die…" I kept on saying through clenched teeth.

Soon it started to rain, and a storm started. I heard thunder in the distance and waves rocked hard on the boat. But I kept on going, heading deeper out into the sea.

Wind blew against my face causing my hair to fly freely. I looked down at my hands to see that they weren't black anymore. Probably the rain and wind caused the paint to melt away since it was still fresh.

Suddenly the boats engine died away. I looked behind me and ran towards the engine. I checked to see if it was broken, it wasn't. I checked the fuel, there was none. I panicked as I realized I could be stranded out here.

I went to look for a paddle but couldn't find any. "Where is it!" I screamed to myself. Indeed, I was probably losing my mind.

"Where is it." I repeated. I threw fishing items all over the place just to find the paddles. I still couldn't find it.

I was about to scream out in defeat when I saw something glow in the water. I walked at the edge of the boat and stared down. I couldn't see too well and had to squint. Waves rocked harder on the boat, and I nearly lost my balance, but I couldn't take my eyes off the glow in the water.

A form soon appeared and I gasped. I stared wide-eyed at my father. I nearly screamed in delight.

"Daddy! Daddy it's me, Coral!" I reached my hands towards him, I was just so happy I never felt happier in my life.

Suddenly the boat was rocking harder and I lost my balance once more, but this time I fell into the water.

I struggled underneath trying to find my way to the surface, but wave after wave hit me. I was sent deeper into the sea.

I opened my mouth to scream, but only bubbles escaped my mouth. Soon the water turned warm, and warmer, until it felt as if it was boiling. My insides were screaming out, my lungs were losing air fast, and my heart felt as if it was going to stop any moment.

_Come_, a voice said, _come to where you belong._

I struggled frantically until I remembered something. "He's going to get you too." My mother had said. And my dream, it was turning out to be like my dream.

I grew more frantic, but I was pulled deeper. My lungs were screaming for air, my vision dimming and I saw red dots before my eyes. But I couldn't give up, I couldn't! I began to swim faster up to the surface, but I knew I was getting tired out. And no matter how hard I tried, I was still pulled deeper.

_Come. _

The pressure of the water was squeezing me tight and I tried screaming again, but bubbles escaped my mouth once more.

I closed my eyes as I realized what my end would be. _You're right mom,_ I told myself, _he got me too._

I let the darkness overcome me, but not until I saw the delight as a pair of cold black eyes watched me die.

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It's not the end! But you better review like last time if you want to know what happens! I would really appreciate if I got a lot of reviews like last time. :smiles: 


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N:** :squeals in delight: Yay! I love my reviewers! Oh and I'm going to change my summary btw.

**11**

I was dreaming again. I saw light everywhere, stars dancing. It was strange, but yet, beautiful. It was the most oddest thing I had ever seen, and I saw myself, but differently. At first I seemed to glow, but then I saw myself more clearly. I had blue hair, eyes shining so brightly and so blue it would be counted as looking into the sea itself. My lips had a tint of blue, and along with my eyelashes, and eyebrows. I could have stared at the image of me forever while I saw myself glow, but then it started to fade and darkness returned.

As I woke, I felt something strange around me. It felt more like I was surrounded by water, and it was pressing me tight.

"_Wake-up."_ Said a voice in my head. I couldn't seem to understand it at first however.

Suddenly my eyes flew wide open and I stared at—at…

I tried gasping but water entered my mouth. I choked at first and drew in a deep breath. I sighed and slowly let air come in and out feeling the warmth of the water around me—

Wait a minute, I was _breathing_? In the water? No way! I couldn't believe it! But then I started sucking in more air, but not from my mouth. Although I felt water rush into my throat then release it as I sucked out air. Water air, in my terms.

I had a feeling of dread that this wasn't right. I slowly felt my hands crawl up to my neck and I felt something. More like three slits, I felt it move as I was sucking in oxygen from the water.

I tried to scream but bubbles only formed. I wanted to run, far away from here. I tried moving my legs but they seemed stuck together. I tried once more to make them move, but they remained stuck.

I looked down to see what was the problem of my legs. As I looked at it, I couldn't believe it. I couldn't! Instead of normal human legs, I had a long blue fish tail that slithered around the water attached to my upper body. I couldn't release my eyes off it, the fish tail looked so long and powerful, it was just too amazing. It seemed to sparkle under the water.

At the end of the long tail I saw two long fins. The color was lighter blue however.

Even as the tail looked pretty and wonderful, that led me to one question. How did I become this? But I only shook my head, this was a dream! A very nice magical dream with me pretending to be a mermaid. But I couldn't believe that, everything felt so real. The water, my fish tail, everything.

I pinched my arm, it hurt. Dreams aren't supposed to hurt, so that means this is true? I looked around me, I saw seaweed on the ocean floor slithering around, and it looked as if they were trying to grab me. I saw a couple of clown fish moving near some corals ignoring as some fish swam by quickly. I also spotted a hammerhead shark nearby lazily swimming around. I knew the shark wasn't dangerous, but many fish swam away afraid of it.

I looked over myself once more and noticed I was wearing the exact same blue tank top I was wearing before.

"_Having fun?"_ Said that voice. I whirled my head around to see no one, only other fishes. That voice, where was it coming from? And why does it sound as if it's speaking in my head?

I tried saying 'where are you' from my mouth, but I couldn't. How could I speak? I didn't know.

I tried once more to speak but then something strange happened. I spoke from my head, and it felt like I heard me speaking, but only differently. It felt more like me turning on a switch in my head so I could start communicating, then as I stopped speaking, I felt as if I turned off the switch.

It was a strange feeling, and I tried doing it a couple more times, and it worked. I practiced for about ten minutes trying to see how I had to communicate more efficiently. I figure out you just had to focus really hard on trying to speak, and if you don't, it only turns out to be a thought in your head. I believed I could only communicate from thought speaking only. And it was actually fun when you got used to it.

As for my sight, it was keener, and more accustomed in looking under the water than on the surface since it was clearer. My hearing had changed too, I heard all sorts of noises around the sea. I heard something splash into the water even though it was a great distance away. I also felt differently, I could feel the water shake as fish were swimming by, and could make out which fish made more movement than the other. It was more like explaining to me that if a fish made more vibration, the bigger it was. It was difficult to explain actually, it would be easier if someone tried it themselves to see what I really meant.

_Stop it_, I scolded myself, _you're supposed to know what happened to you, not fool around! _

I heard laughter in the distance and I frantically tried to spot who was making those noises. Soon, a shadow appeared near some rocks coming closer and closer to me.

After the figure was only about ten feet away from me, I could now see it more clearly. What I stared at was shocking, I was looking right at a merman! I saw its long black fish tail, which was longer than mine, its cold stare with those black eyes of his, and his long black hair moving around the water along with his bare chest.

I thought he looked like the merman I had met before, the one that nearly drowned Mina, but something was different. He didn't have the same appearance exactly, and he seemed more… evil. His eyes didn't show the kindness the other did, and his face looked different.

I saw him grin at me. I also noticed him stare at me from top to bottom, it was very uncomfortable.

_"You remind me of your father."_ That voice, so it was coming from him. And he didn't speak from his mouth, so I was guessing he spoke from his mind. 

I didn't reply but I grew puzzled, he knew my father?

I saw him grin again then he swam towards me and I backed away surprised at how I could move my fin so well.

His grin widened as he watched me move away from him frightened. _"Scared of me little one?" _He said. I glared at him, my father had called me 'little one' when I was a small girl.

I stared right into his eyes and felt fear come across me. He was very frightening if you stared at him closely.

I was about to swim away from him when he grabbed me from my arm roughly. I was going to scream let go when I remembered I could only communicate through thought speak.

Once again I felt as if there was a switch turning on in my brain as I focused hard on how to speak through my mind. I tried once, but I don't think he heard, so I tried again. _"Let go!" _I yelled. Once more I felt as if I heard myself speak. He only laughed.

"_You're not going anywhere my Queen."_ He replied slowly, his voice made you want to scream and get as far away from him as possible.

"_Let go!" _I repeated.

His iron grip remained as he continued to hold me by the arm. I decided to use my tail so I smacked him hard on the chest making his grip soften, but not enough for me to escape.

"_Fool, you cannot hurt me, do you realize who I am?" _He replied bitterly.

I didn't care whatever he said, I just wanted for him to let go. I struggled under his grasp but he pulled me along to who-knows-where.

I saw fish swim away in fear probably recognizing the merman.

"_Where are you taking me?" _I asked. I was getting used to thought speech.

He only stared back at me and grinned. I began to panic a little as I saw gleam across his eyes, I wondered what he had in mind.

My first day of being a mermaid and I was stuck with this moron. Somehow I smirked at that, calling him a moron was just too weird.

He glared at me wondering what was so funny, I didn't reply.

"_You think everything is funny don't you? Well, I bet it wouldn't be funny when I forced you to drown that other day at the beach." _He scolded, _"To bad that stupid human had to save you before you would've been mine." _

My eyes grew wide open, so it was not my imagination that I drowned. It was him the whole time!

"_Especially how I enjoyed to watch you father die after what he had done to me so long ago." _He said.

I was horrified all of a sudden, _he _had killed my father! I clenched my teeth so hard I think they were going to break.

"_You killed my father! I'll kill you for this!" _I threatened. I struggled harder under his grip but he only laughed.

I was so furious at the moment, realizing he was the one causing so much pain in my family. My mother died from my dad's loss, and now Mina and me had no parents and were stuck at a orphanage. Which reminds me, what would happen to Mina now that I was gone?

"_I hate you!"_ I yelled at him, suddenly I brought my free hand up and hit his face causing a scratch to appear. A thin line mark was shown across his cheek with blood oozing out. But slowly, the wound started to heal.

I was shocked as I saw him heal, and he smiled at me evilly, but I struggled again under his grip but he took little notice.

I bit down on his hand, hard. The hardest I could ever do and he let me go, feeling the pain on his hand.

But I swam away from his as quickly as I could, trying to be the as far from his as possible. I heard his yells in my mind, but they soon grew distant since I was getting far from him.

I continued to swim not even stopping one second, I swam until I saw night approach and I slowed down realizing he hadn't come after me, but I knew he would later. One day he probably would. But why had he killed my father? How did he know my father? Why did he try to drown me before? I had a feeling he had made me into this mermaid, and I wondered how. Was he some sort of magical merman with lots of super powers or something? Evil as he is, he was very strange. But why was he after me? I shook my head, so many questions!

As I swam I saw a manta ray swim close to the surface moving its wings lazily in the water. I saw a swordfish swim at the bottom chasing a small school of fish, there were four dolphins up ahead and I saw them look at me in interest.

I heard them make clicking noises excitedly as they swam my direction. As they drew closer, I could see from their looks that they were wondering if I was something they could play along with. I decided to have some fun with them, just to forget about that haunting merman and enjoy the sea for a while.

I swam towards the dolphins and made a twist around the water to show I wanted to play along as well. They made noises happily and swam away looking to see if I would follow, I did. They stopped for a moment and made clicking noises to each other, probably talking about what they would play.

Suddenly the dolphins swam off in such a quick movement, I wondered if they were scared of me. But then they stopped to realize I wasn't coming along.

Then I understood, they were going to race! Well, that sounded a bit fun.

I swam quickly over to them and they continued to race, jumping out of the water and diving back down making me feel the water vibrate. I wanted to try too, so I leaped up to the surface seeing me fly in the air for just a moment until I came splashing back down. I was so surprised to see how easy it was since my fish tail was so strong and quick.

The four dolphins were having fun seeing me doing tricks as I jumped. I made a twist once I leaped out of the water feeling so graceful, so happy. The sea felt like home to me, more like I belonged here. I began to think how I could ever live out on land for so long, the water was everything to me.

I cried out in joy as I made another twist in the air landing back with a hard splash into the water. The dolphins saw this and tried as well, but managed only to make half a twist above the air, which made them land in the water on their backs.

I watched as a dolphin started to leap straight up the air then landing straight down instead of leaping in a diving motion.

I saw other dolphins try this too, and they appeared to enjoy it. I decided to give it a try, and as I leaped I flew higher up in the air, making a double twist, and landing back down.

The dolphins squealed happily until they stopped and grew silent. They watched as a figure moved our way and I looked to see what was approaching.

The dolphins swam away not too eagerly, but a little afraid. I still remained in my spot and noticed a person approaching, until I noticed its long black fin.

I grew frightened and was about to swim away when I saw his face. It was different than the other merman's, and I noticed its kindness on his face. His eyes were black much like the others, but not horrifying. No, it wasn't the same merman at all, and I looked to see that he was smiling at me kindly.

* * *

**A/N: **Hah! Now we're getting to the point finally! Oh and of course review when you're done with this chap. Cuz if I don't get a lot of reviews… I gonna cry. :p I hope I explained well in this chapter though, because I wrote this chapter at ten o'clock the night! Which I'm very sleepy at the moment... 


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: **My reviewers are fantastic:hugs reviewers: But one problem… I have too much homework! AND, I might be getting a job so that may cause slower updations. And walla! Here's my 12th chapter!

**12**

I stared at the merman before me silently, and he stared back. My mind seemed to remember something about him; he was so familiar. I thought harder and suddenly I remembered who he was. Mina had mentioned his name before… wasn't it Miruko? It appeared as if I met him some time ago, I was so sure that about it.

"_Coral? Is it you?" _I heard him say. I closed my eyes, his voice was soft and comforting, not like the other's whose was horrifying and made you dread to hear his words. My heart seemed to melt as he talked; his voice was just so… beautiful.

I re-opened my eyes to see him staring at me, waiting for an answer.

"_Uh—yes, I'm Coral… how'd you know that?" _I mentally slapped myself, that was the most stupidest question! Of course I knew!

He just smiled, his very sweet smile. _"You've met me before." _

I tried making a puzzled expression, but I guess I didn't do it quite well since I heard him laugh softly.

I could hear him laugh forever if I wished.

I smiled shyly and felt my face blush. My heart felt as if it was a size too big, my mind seemed to stop but just daze over him. I suddenly shook my head mentally, what was wrong with me?

"_Is your sister around too?" _He asked.

Oh no, Mina! I thought. I forgot about her again! How stupid of me, now what would she do? Without me, she would probably be stuck at the orphanage for a long time and be adopted by an uncaring family. I knew she needed me now more than ever.

"_I—no! I have to go find her!" _I couldn't just stay here and let myself talk to Miruko, I had to find Mina as soon as possible! My sister was more important than anything.

I swam off before he even had a chance to reply. I swam through the ocean as fast as my tail could go. However, I had no idea where the shore was or how I was going to find Mina. But my goal right now was just to find my sister before I could think about anything else.

I swam close to the surface and saw that it was completely dark. But my mind shifted back to finding Mina even if it was the last thing I could do.

I swam for hours, and still couldn't find the shore. Maybe I had swam the wrong way? But I knew that was foolish, the shore had to be east, not west.

As I swam, I discovered many other creatures in the sea rather than during the day. There were fish larger, and more dangerous than any I had ever seen. My eyes could make out a flat figure on the ocean floor and was the color of the sand, it appeared to be invisible. I watched quickly as a lonely fish swam lazily near the ocean floor, right in the direction of the camouflaged creature.

Suddenly in a swift movement, the creature moved from its spot on the floor and ate the poor fish in a blink of an eye and went back hiding.

My eyes were wide open the whole time, it was just freaky to just see a fish get eaten by something so quickly. I felt myself shiver, but I continued to swim trying to find the shore while thinking about the poor fish.

At night, the sea was dangerous, but not from sharks mostly. Other fishes were far more dangerous than any shark, even if it was small in size. Not to mention poisonous plants as well, since I just saw a small crab maybe the size of my thumb practically get eaten by a plant. Of course at night it was far more interesting than during the day, but I did spot some sharks nearby and tried to swim far away from it as possible since it looked hungry.

I was frightened, my eyes couldn't see as clearly under the water as during the day, but luckily my hearing was the same and the vibration of the water was no different, only calmer.

I felt myself get drowsy, I wanted to sleep, but I was too focused on finding Mina. But how would I find her during the night anyway? It's not like she's going to go swimming when it's dark, I should probably wait till it's morning.

My fish tail seemed to be slowing down as it grew tired, and my mind wasn't working properly. I decided to find a nice spot for me to rest.

I searched around a bit till I found rocks near the surface. I swam over to it and spotted a small cave under the rocks. I squeezed myself in and found that it was a rather small place, but good enough for me to rest.

I lay on the sand and rested my head feeling my eyes begin to close. I drifted off to sleep in less than a minute.

I woke the next morning to find daylight seeping through the rocks I was sleeping under. My mind seemed unfocused as to how I got here, until I remembered. I groaned realizing what had happened yesterday, until I realized I couldn't even groan since no noise came out.

I stretched my arms and back. I tried to get slowly out from under the rocks and spotted a lion fish staring at me, at least I thought it was looking at me. It didn't move at all, just remained frozen until I saw it float on top of the surface. I began to wonder that it was dead.

I frowned and swam away remembering how I had to find Mina. Since it was daylight, I could see more clearly and found that the shore was only about half a mile away. I smiled in delight and swam towards the shore eager to find my sister.

I arrived near the beach in about five minutes and stopped. I stuck my head out of the water feeling the cold wind blow against my face making me shiver. The water was way warmer, or at least that's how I felt.

I spotted rocks on top of the surface of the water and I swam over to it. Once I came upon it, I pulled myself up and sat down gazing around the beach.

My vision was a bit blurry since it was meant to look under the water, not outside. But it was enough for me to try to spot Mina. I also noticed that I could breathe in the water _and _outside, except I didn't use my gills out of the water.

As I looked around, I saw little kids running on the sand, racing the waves. Moms were busy getting a tan and teenagers were busy showing off their bods. There were also people exercising down the beach and couples walking hand in hand.

I laughed softly as I saw a little boy about five years of age get his sand castle destroyed by a older kid. He cried and his mom ran over to him while spanking the other boy. The little kid stopped crying and laughed teasingly at the boy who stood there angered by him. He stomped away angrily and ran over to his mom.

There were all sorts of commotions at the beach today since I thought it was a Sunday. Or maybe it was Saturday, I didn't know.

There was also a girl about fourteen years old flirting with a guy that appeared to be twenty. I frowned at that, the guy just looked way older than her.

But no matter where I looked, I couldn't find Mina. I began to realize the orphanage probably never brought the kids to the beach, and that saddened me. What would Mina think now that I was gone? Would she think I ran away and left her? I knew how broken hearted she would be.

I sighed, I couldn't go to the orphanage either. Not like this, I just can't move around town with a fish tail. That would be a major mistake.

But I didn't move from my spot, I didn't want to. I wanted Mina to be here with me, or else I would never be happy again. No matter how selfish, how annoying she was, I still loved her.

I felt my eyes get watery and tears fell freely down my cheek. All I could do was cry.

I cried for so long until I felt that I had no more tears left. I looked sadly back in the water and couldn't hold back my surprise. I wasn't looking at myself, or at least I thought it wasn't me. But the face looked so familiar.

A girl with blue eyes the color of the sea, with long blue hair along with blue eyelashes and eyebrows stared back at me. Her lips had a tint of blue and she seemed to glow with her blue fish tail. She looks so much like me, I thought, and so familiar. I moved to the left, the reflection moved with me. I stuck my tongue out, it did as well.

I gasped as I realized it _was_ me. But it couldn't be, it just couldn't…

Although no matter how hard I tried to believe it, I couldn't. I had to accept that fact.

It was so strange, looking at yourself differently. It's like waking up and realizing you just got transported to another persons body, because that's just how I felt right now.

I felt the suns rays on my back, and they hurt. I tried moving a little, but my fin started to burn. What was going on?

After a while my whole body started to feel so dry, and I felt my skin begin to peel off. My whole body began to burn.

I quickly dived back into the water and felt so much better. But I began to wonder why my body had burned like that.

I thought hard until I remembered something my Biology teacher had explained, when fish stayed out of the water too long, they would get so dry, they could even feel their skin burn. And maybe I was like that too.

It saddened me however, my freedom of the surface was taken away from me. And I hated it. Of course I loved the sea and all, but I began to realize it couldn't be my home even if it felt like it. I suddenly didn't like the idea of being a mermaid, I wanted to go back home, with Mina and mom and dad…

Except there all gone now, I thought. I'm all alone, and I'm stuck like this forever.

* * *

:sneezes: Ugh… I have a flu. Maybe that's why you'll begin to realize this chapter isn't very good. Oh dear. 


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: **I can't believe I'm doin' this! I have tons of homework and I'm writing? Shame on me, but then again, I hate school. I only love (adore) my science class. Cuz science rocks! Heh. Flu's gone (a long time ago). But every day I get busier and busier because of my English class. I do not like that teacher… grr…

**13**

**(Mina's POV)**

I stared out of the orphanage waiting for Coral to come back. Hours passed, but there was still no sign of her. I missed her a lot, and why doesn't she come back? Does she hate me? Had I done something wrong? I waited patiently wondering if she wanted to play chess again.

I sighed and rested my head on the windowsill. I saw clouds over head begin to cover the sky making it gray and dark, I hated the rain. I wanted to go to the beach and play with Coral. If she came back though.

I closed my eyes and began to daydream about daddy. He was always funny; I remembered when he liked to play checkers with me, just like Coral. He beat me once though, but I let him, just to be fair. I also remembered how he took me to the beach when Coral was at school. We'd swim together, and he'd teach me how to float on my back. It was fun, and I missed him a lot.

But mommy? What's fun to know about her? She never played with me; she ignored me as if I wasn't her child. I hate her, because she left me and Coral. She left me here in this place so she could be with daddy.

Is that what Coral did too? I thought. Did she leave me here so she could be with daddy? Does she hate me like mom? Why doesn't anyone love me, I thought, I'm not a bad girl.

I felt my eyes water as I felt my hopes begin to fade. Coral had to come back, she had too! She wouldn't leave me here alone, would she? Why won't she come back…?

Because she hates me too, I thought. Everyone hates me, but I'm not bad, they are. Everyone's bad, and I hate Coral too, just like mommy.

**(Coral's POV) **

I thought about Mina, the only family member I have left is gone. If only I could see her one last time, just once, and tell her everything. So she won't be mad, but it's impossible. I knew it. It would be a miracle if I ever saw her walking down the beach and I'd spot her.

But I'm going to stay near the shore, until I found Coral, even if I never would. She was my sister, and I didn't want anything bad to happen to her.

But it's pointless, even if something did happen to her, I wouldn't be able to do anything. I'm stuck as a mermaid; I can't walk on shore or even expose myself to anyone.

I stuck my head out of the water and gazed around the beach seeing people leave too quickly. I looked up at the sky and saw it begin to darken making it seem as if there would be a storm coming soon. It was strange however, about an hour ago it was so bright and full of sunshine, I wonder what made the weather like this.

I stared back at the shore and spotted Sara. She was packing her umbrella and other supplies she brought along rapidly. I noticed that her brothers were trying to fly a kite and she was yelling at them to put it away and help her pack. They ignored her and just laughed.

I saw Sara put some sort of snack in her bag, I couldn't see too clearly, and strode angrily to her brothers. I swam a little closer, probably about a hundred fifty yards away from them. I was too close, but it didn't matter, I was too eager to see what Sara was up to.

I felt waves bobbing up and down under me madly and the water rised up on the shore. Wind began to pick up and I felt my hair whipping around my head like crazy. But I still watched as Sara yelled at her brothers to stop playing around, but they continued to ignore her. She cried out in frustration and strode away heading home. Her brothers didn't move from their spots.

At last the kite flew and it was swirling around like crazy up in the air, but after a while it stopped twirling and just floated up there. I would've cheered to see them fly a kite in a weather like this, but of course I couldn't attract attention.

There kite was red white and blue, more like the Russian or French flag, perhaps because of their race

I smiled as I saw them run around the beach with the kite high above the sky. They seemed to be having so much fun, but I saw Sara standing on top of a hill glaring at them. Apparently she hadn't left, and probably worried of what might happen to them.

Suddenly, one of them tripped and was sent sprawling across the sand. And he was the one holding the kite and let go of it as he fell making in float in the air freely. Wind picked the kite up and sent in farther out towards the sea until it finally fell on the water.

I saw the disappointed looks on their faces and it made me sad. I felt disappointed too, but maybe if I got the kite for them…

I shook my head, I couldn't. Even if I could swim over and grab it, Sara and her brothers would see what I became.

But they just looked so disappointed, I decided to go get it. Besides, what could happen? I could throw it over to them without letting anyone see me, it's simple.

I swam hard near the kite ignoring as the waves hit my face. I used to drown if I ever got caught in waves, but now it felt more like a ride or a challenge. It felt more like a game in other words.

I reached the kite and grabbed it. The kite was a bit smothered, but it could get fixed up.

I quickly swam back near the shore clutching the kite tightly, I saw Sara squint at my direction seeing the kite under my hand. Her brothers saw this too and stared at me puzzled.

I hadn't noticed I made it near the shore too close, until I heard Mina shout my name.

"Hey Coral! What are you doing in the water?" She yelled.

I gasped, they saw me?

"Why did you dye your hair blue?" She screamed over the wind. I saw her brothers stare at me oddly, then snicker at what I had done to my hair.

I decided I couldn't give them their kite back, so I sank down in the water letting the kite go.

As I swam under, the water was shallow and I was still probably visible. I swam away from the shore so I wouldn't be seen and I heard Sara's cries behind me.

They probably think I drowned, I thought. Now everyone will think I'm dead, maybe Mina too. In a way, that would be good since that would give an explanation to Mina why I couldn't be with her anymore. But it would just make her feel lonely and scared.

I continued to swim deeper into the ocean getting pretty far from the shore. I suddenly shivered, the water was getting colder.

I noticed some fish nearby swim lazily in the water. I spotted a school of fish up ahead and I swam over to them, they didn't seem the least bit afraid of me. There were probably hundreds or thousands of fish everywhere! It was just so amazing, I stared in awe as they twirled around me.

I felt them brush against my back as they swam by, I tried to move forward but I ended up colliding with some fish right in my face. I felt the water vibrate as the fish were swimming since they were causing the water to move.

I was having a great time as I kept my pace with the school of fish, and they moved so fast it was hard to keep up with them.

I felt hungry all of a sudden. I stopped following the fish and let them swim by. I though about what I was going to eat. I couldn't eat raw fish, the thought disgusted me.

I looked around the sea floor and spotted a few corals along with seaweed near some rocks.

My eyes remained on the seaweed and my stomach grumbled again. Maybe if I ate seaweed it wouldn't be so bad, I thought. After all, it's better than eating raw fish.

I swam down to the ocean floor and tore off a small peace of seaweed. I looked at it carefully wondering if it would taste good. I shrugged and stuffed it in my mouth.

At first it didn't taste like anything, but slowly I felt the taste in my mouth and it was good! It tasted more like lettuce only saltier and it seemed as if spices were added to it. I tore off another peace of seaweed and eagerly ate it. If I was probably human, the seaweed would have tasted differently, but now that I was part fish my appetite had changed too.

I saw sea lions swim by eyeing me curiously. Then they found out I wasn't food so they swam off to look for something useful to eat. I continued to eat my own meal and I enjoyed it very much.

Half way through my meal I started to get dizzy. The water started getting cloudy and somehow it felt hotter. I stopped eating and squinted through the water trying to see what was going on. There appeared to be no problem, until I felt a searing pain inside my head.

At first it didn't hurt much, but then it started getting worse.

I clutched my head painfully and rubbed my forehead a little. The pain only grew worse, and I felt as if I had trouble breathing. The water was getting too hot.

I felt sleepy all of a sudden, but I managed to stay awake. But the pain in my head grew so bad I felt like screaming and pulling my hair at the same time. All I could do though was clutch my head in pain and scream while bubbles escaped my mouth.

I floated down on the ocean floor withering in pain. My gills were working hard to catch some air but failed. The water got cloudier and cloudier until I only saw gray ahead of me.

My vision was slowly disappearing until I heard a yell in the distance. It was the only thing that kept me from losing my conscious.

I crawled on the ocean floor grasping the sand as the pain in my head continued. My head soon felt as if it was about to burst and blood started to come out of my noise. The water around me turned a pinkish red as the blood poured into the water.

I closed my eyes wanting to cry. I just wanted to do anything to get rid of the pain.

I heard the yell in the distance again and it seemed clearer now. It sounded more like a whisper.

_Coral… Coral… come here… _It kept on saying.

I slowly opened my eyes to see a bright light coming towards my way through the gray water.

_Come here Coral… _It whispered. I slowly crawled forward trying to ignore the pain in my head even though it was impossible.

Suddenly, my head felt as if it was stabbed and I tried to scream until I saw a vision in front of me. The pain in my head stopped and the voice calling me stopped as well.

The vision I saw was really quick, it appeared as if I was watching a movie going fast forward, but the detail was clear enough for me to understand what was going on.

I saw my dad walk down the beach with a dazed expression on his face as if he didn't seem to know what he was doing. I saw him reach the water but he kept on going deeper until he started to swim forward. I saw the tides push my father back and a cruel laughter was heard in the distance.

My father continued to swim out into the ocean until I noticed something stare at him. I spotted the pair of black eyes looking at my father with a grin plastered across its face. My father seemed to stare at him with a look of remembrance as he snapped out of his daze.

All of a sudden it occurred to my father where he was and I saw him panic. He yelled for help and the only answer he got was a cruel laughter.

I saw a huge tide come towards my father and push him down underneath. I wanted to scream and run to his aid, but all I could do was watch him drown.

I saw my father flail under the water as he tried to reach the surface, but a force appeared to be pushing him down deeper.

I noticed the figure stare back at him while laughing. It suddenly occurred to me I had met that creature before.

I saw my father make one last attempt to the surface until he stopped moving. He floated under the water and just stared up at the surface with unblinking eyes. I saw the creature smile in satisfaction and then look at me. His smile grew wider.

I couldn't believe anything I saw, it was just too horrible. And the way I saw my father's dead stare, my heart clenched at the sight.

So this is how my father died after all, I thought sadly.

"_He deserved it you know."_ The creature said making me look back at him.

I felt my anger rise and I wanted to go and rip that thing to shreds. But the only thing that happened was the vision slowly faded replacing it back to where I was before.

I noticed the water was no longer gray, and I didn't feel dizzy. I saw seaweeds nearby and fish swimming above me as I lay on the ocean floor.

But then I saw him, the creature that killed my father and he stared back at me with a grin.

I clenched my teeth hard and stared back at him angrily. _"You-you bastard!"_ I yelled.

I swam full speed towards him with my hands outstretched so I could strangle him. I expected his smile to fade and his expression to replace with fear, but he still smiled back.

I was about a feet away from attacking him when something bright appeared in front of me. I collided onto what felt like a wall and it burned my skin. I was also pushed back with such force, I hit the rock behind me.

I shut my eyes in pain as my back felt broken. I looked back at the merman with a pained expression, but he only laughed, the cruel laugh I had heard in my vision.

"_I loved the way I watched your father die. It felt so good to have my revenge on him." _He said.

I rubbed my back and winced in pain as I felt my skin sting from the burn.

"_You have no idea what your father did to me a long time ago. But he couldn't stop me since he was just a weak little human." _He replied.

I stared back at him wondering what he meant.

"_But no one could stop me now since I took your fathers place!" _He cried.

I was puzzled by his statement, what was the idiot talking about?

I saw him swim towards me. I tried backing away but my fins appeared to have gone stiff, all I could do was watch as he approached me. I saw him grab my neck and I tried to struggle, but my whole body felt numb.

"_But how could I forget his lovely daughter?" _He said. I saw his other hand touch my cheek. _"No I wouldn't forget about you, my queen."_

* * *

**A/N: **Oooooh… wonder what will happen next. Hehe. But somehow I feel as if my writing got worse. Did it get worse? Or is it just me? 


	14. Chapter 14

Jolly o! I love my reviewers! (shivers) my hands are cold and stiff. It's a bit hard to write when I can barely move my fingers. Ah well, I deserve it since I haven't updated in a long time. (flexes fingers) Still stiff… oh dear. Erm, I don't think you're going to like this chapter. So, please don't flame me in hatred. (cowers in the corner fearfully) But, this chapter is unique, and you'll see why.

* * *

**14**

I stared horrified at the merman before me. He caressed my face and smiled.

I saw him move closer to me, so close that his body touched mine. I tried to scream but I couldn't even make a sound. It was as if he controlled my entire body, and I was unable to do anything. His grip on my neck loosened so that it was enough for me to escape. But I wasn't able to move, not even a small twitch.

His face was inches away from mine and I felt his dark hair brush against my face. His smile slowly faded as he stared at my eyes intently. His face grew so close that I felt his lips brush against mine. He suddenly kissed me on my lips.

His kiss was soft, very soft, but then it grew harsh. His hands slowly moved to my body.

I felt my face heat up in anger, my body seemed to shake in rage, my mind felt as if it was about to burst, and suddenly, I felt my hands move ever so slightly. The merman didn't seem to notice I was able to move my arms.

I brought up my arms with an effort since I felt a strong force willing to move my arms back. But nothing could stop me from the rage that had welled up inside of me.

I struck the merman on the head with such a force, his face whipped back. I pushed him away from me and I struck him again on the chest. I screamed in fury as I hit him again and again.

"_Die! Just die!" _I screamed. I was about to make a blow to his face when he grabbed my arm. His face had turned deep red and I saw the anger flicker in his eyes. I moved my arm and struggled under his iron grip. I felt my arm move under his grasp slightly, but he still had a strong hold of me.

He slapped me across the face so hard that my head spun around.

I put up my free hand to my cheek where he had struck me. Slowly, I felt a stinging pain growing.

"_From now on, you do as I say, or you will pay dearly." _He hissed.

Suddenly I felt my hands and body go limp, and my head tilted to the side.

I saw his hands grab around my body, and he dragged me to who knows where.

* * *

As I was taken to some place, I was brought deeper into the ocean. The ocean floor grew bumpy and larger fish were seen nearby. Sunlight started to fade away as the darkness of the sea took over.

I noticed tiny fish the size of my finger dart by and crabs crawled on some jagged rocks. I also noticed a cliff loom into view. I gazed beyond it and noticed how dark it seemed from a distance.

He dragged me closer to the cliff and I caught a glimpse that something started to give off a gleam. He pulled me closer until I was right in front of the cliff.

I stared in shock at what I saw. Mermaids and merman's swam everywhere! I even saw something tall and dark come into view, it reminded me of a castle covered in corals and seaweed. The whole place gave off a bright glow and I saw huge caves on the other side of the cliff. The whole place looked like an underwater city, there were even buildings that looked like something you would see on land. The only difference was that they were covered in seaweeds or corals.

I gazed at the place in awe. There were even statues made out of stone. One of them was a mermaid; she was staring straight ahead and was covered in some type of jewelry since something gave off a glow. There was even a statue of a merman holding some type of weapon with a sharp blade at the end which reminded me of a spear. He wore armor as well, which I found odd that merman's would wear such a thing. The stories that I have read usually said that merman's never wore armor. But I mentally shook my head, those books were all Greek Mythology and a totally different thing than this place.

The merman had a stern stare and I noticed the scar they had created on its face. It ran down his jaw line and all the way down his neck.

I even saw pathways at the ocean bottom made out of stones placed in the ground.

I saw a group of mermaid's swim quickly inside the castle. They carried some sort of sea plant that reminded me of flowers. And I noticed all the windows placed in the castle, but it seemed more like an exit since mermaids and merman's swam in and out of it.

But what I think the main entrance of the castle was had stone steps and diamonds decorated in front of a large opening. I had no clue why there were steps since none of the mermaids or merman's used it at all. And what was also strange was how they found diamonds in the ocean to decorate in front of the entrance. But what really amazed me was a large statue of a human built right in front of the entrance. It was a man wearing a golden crown, a robe that seemed to glitter with diamonds, wearing armor that gave off a bright glow, and he carried a sword in his left hand. He also had a beard and short hair. I grew confused because I wondered why they would place a human statue in the middle of this place.

The whole place was beautiful, everything seemed to shine, even the stones. I noticed a group of rocks not too far from the castle, it had symbols drawn on them. Each stone had at least two or three symbols and they all gave off a strange color. I didn't recognize any of them and I counted to see that there were eight stones.

Near the far side of the castle stood an area that reminded me of a market. There were more mermaids than merman's there and I even noticed that there were stores. I saw seashells and other nice materials hanging on stands and mermaids were waiting patiently behind a counter. I smiled as I saw some sort of mermaid dance being played in the middle of the market.

The dancers wore some type of material that glittered and seashells hanged on their ears and around their necks. They twirled around slowly and moved their arms and fishtail. I noticed that they were wearing nothing to cover their chests.

My attention was drawn away when I heard a steady song being played. I looked to my right and saw a group of mermaids singing in a slow rhythmic sound. They didn't say any words but the song seemed to echo along the entire place in a sweet voice. As I listened carefully I felt calm and peaceful, the song was just too sweet.

"_Well? How do you like it?" _I snapped out of my daze and drew my attention back to the merman.

"_Uh… w-what?" _I asked still a bit drowsy. I heard the song being played over and over again in my head.

"_I said, how do you like this place?" _He asked impatiently.

I furrowed my eyebrows and didn't answer. I heard him laugh.

"_I can tell you like it here. Well, good. This is your home from now on." _He said.

I glared at him angrily and I tried to lift up my arm to hit him, but my body remained limp. But by now I was able to speak and move my head. However, he still had his arms wrapped around my body and continued to carry me around.

I saw him swim forward towards the city and I was dragged along. The closer we got, the brighter everything seemed.

I noticed a group of merman's swim in our direction, all of them carried something like a spear and wore armor. As they drew closer I noticed the tense look in their faces.

_"My lord, welcome back."_ Said one of the merman. He had blond hair and a green fish tail with shocking green eyes. 

I grew puzzled as he mentioned the merman as 'my lord.' Was the merman carrying me some sort of general? Did merman's have armies? It was hard to believe since I never even heard of that before. And why would merman's have armies anyway?

"_Take her to my room Arcus." _The merman, who was carrying me, said ignoring Arcus's greeting.

I felt him let go of me and the other merman's grabbed my arms.

"_And make sure she doesn't escape." _He ordered in a harsh tone.

I saw the soldiers nod and take me away while the merman swam off. But he looked at me on last time and grinned.

I saw myself pulled towards the castle. I felt the grip on my arms grow tighter and I shrieked, _"Let go of me!" _They just ignored my pleas as I was brought to the castle.

I noticed some mermaids stare at me as they swam by. They looked surprised and confused at the same time.

I was only hoping that I would get out of this place one way or another. Even if the whole place was beautiful, I was trapped here like a prisoner.

I hated this place.

* * *

**A/N: **You probably have questions right now, a lot of them maybe. But hold it for later, the next chapter will explain most things at the time. And this is short, I know. But I'm writing this story at midnight and I have school tomorrow! But don't worry, I usually sleep for only four hours a day. I'm used to it. 


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: **Yah! I need more reviews! (gasps) I think I lost some readers, NO! But I'm going to add this stories genre as romance okay? And take out a genre, though I don't know which one, oh well!

**15**

I was brought inside the castle, and I couldn't believe what I saw. There were rooms, so many rooms it was hard to keep track of how many there were. I was brought to a large, or more likely a huge, hallway. There were library's, dining rooms, various floors of the castle, some sort of council room I saw, and there even was a room filled with statues which I thought was some sort of art room. But that wasn't all, as I was brought to various places, there were carvings of stone's everywhere, decoration of sea plants with pearls and shells, and so much more. I even spotted a room full of mermaids creating some sort of jewelry and crafts of some sort. There even was a kitchen, and I wondered what they cooked in there. They also had a dancing room.

I noticed a quiet room as well, it had large rocks and shells with a soft material placed on them. I noticed some of the mer people were resting on them and I wondered if they were some sort of bed, or couch's of some sort.

The whole castle was made out of stone, but they were covered in something green I didn't recognize. But what really amazed me was that the whole place sparkled with golds and diamonds. The floor was made out of marble, and I found it odd that they even found such stones. Never in my life had I seen so much luxury.

I saw two mermen lead me towards two large doors. The doors were covered in silver and rubies. I noticed the two merman's had trouble opening the door since it was so heavy.

Once they opened it, I was brought inside. As I looked around I stood gaping at what I saw. The room was huge! There was some sort of seat at the very back of the room, which reminded me of something that a King would sit on. There were two statues of two merman's wearing armor and weapons, one of them stood at the right side of the seat, and the other to the left. They were made out of gold, not stone. The floor was also made out of marble, along with the walls and ceiling. But what really amazed me was a bright chandelier placed at the top of the ceiling right in the middle of the room. Of course this was made out of diamonds as well and rubies, but something strange gave off a glow. Somehow I doubted it was the diamonds and rubies, I had a feeling something magical gave that thing an incredible glow.

I spotted a large stone to my left, and this too gave off a strange glow. It had a large symbol printed on it in red and I noticed something strange. The stone was black, but too black to be real. It reminded me of an endless pit with nothing but darkness to be seen.

I shuddered; somehow the stone gave me a creepy feeling. I felt the presence of the stone as something very magical, or evil.

Two of the merman's who held my arms pushed me forward towards a large door just ahead of me. I struggled under their grip but I knew there was no use. They were far stronger than me and no way was I able to escape through this mess.

I saw the two mermen in front of me push the door open and once again I entered inside another room. This time the room was smaller, but it appeared to be some sort of bedroom. I noticed a large look a like shell at the middle of the room with soft materials placed on top of it. I saw a mirror in the corner, the first one I had seen in this huge place, and more statues decorated around the room. There was no window in this room, but I don't think there's such thing as a window anyway since it's used as an exit and entrance. I also noticed the whole room had decorations and patterns along the walls made out of gold and silver. The large shell, or bed whatever, also had decorations around it made out of gold and silver.

I saw the mermen let go of me and the other two in front of me turned around and were about to leave. I also turned around and made a quick escape to the door when I saw the four mermen about to leave the room. I almost made a cry for 'wait!' but only bubbles came out of my mouth. I was about to swim out the door when the four mermen closed it leaving me trapped in this room.

I heard a soft click and I knew they had already locked the door.

But that didn't stop me from trying to escape. I banged the door and kicked it with my tail as hard as I could, but it didn't even budge.

"_Hey! Somebody! Get me out of here, please!" _I begged screaming the loudest I could. I yelled over and over again, but there was no answer.

I slumped against the door and felt my eyes water, yet no tears escaped from my eyes. I shut my eyes tightly and felt my eyes continue to water. I couldn't cry, mermaid's don't cry for they have no tears. I felt my heart weaken, and I wondered why. I hated being trapped in one room, it hurt my heart so much that I clutched my chest tightly. What was doing this?

My breathing grew rapid, and I banged the door again. But that didn't stop the pain in my heart, so I banged it again and again until I couldn't stop. But the pain in my heart increased until I could no longer move my arms, but I felt my mind grow some sort of energy in it.

I looked around the room as I stopped banging the door. I continued feeling the strange feeling in my mind grow. The room seemed to tilt and the water seemed to have less pressure to it. I felt some sort of heat grow inside of me until I felt my eyes burn. My head also felt a size too big and every second seemed to pass by so slowly.

I saw a strange glow start to grow around my body and I shuddered as I felt a wave of heat pass through me again. I clutched my heart since every time it beat my body seemed to grow energy. Nothing really hurt except my heart, and the heat that grew in my body wasn't too painful.

All of a sudden I felt the door burst open and I looked to see the merman I had encountered before stare at me cruelly. His dark hair looked like cobwebs on his head and his black eyes seemed to stare right through me. I shuddered again, not from the heat inside of me, but from his cold stare.

Slowly I saw him swim towards me with the strangest expression. He seemed to concentrate really hard on something and I felt some sort of coldness spread through me. I felt the heat in my body start to fade and the pain in my heart stopped until I felt normal again.

The merman stopped concentrating and just stared at me, he appeared a little exhausted for some reason until he snapped out of his daze. I saw him grin at me and start to swim closer towards my direction. I swam back a little frightened and confused at the same time wondering what he was about to do.

He looked at me up and down and suddenly I knew what he planned in mind. My eyes grew wide and I quickly swam towards the open door. I dodged out of the way as he tried to grab me, but I made it out the door.

"_Get back in here you little scum!" _I heard him yell, but I continued to swim as fast as I could. I looked behind me to see him catching up, I almost gasped as I saw how fast he could swim compared to me. I suddenly knew I couldn't beat him, he was just too fast, but I didn't give up.

I swam through the large room, passing by that stone which gave me another cold shudder, until I made it to the other door. I tried budging it open but the door was too heavy. I pushed with all my might until I saw it swing right open.

I frantically tried to swim out the door when I noticed someone right in front of me. I stared up and saw his bare chest and dark eyes along with his long black hair.

My eyebrows furrowed, there were two of them? But when I turned around I saw the other merman had stopped swimming after me. He glared back at the merman that was in front of me and I continued looking back and forth at them wondering what was going on.

I looked back at the merman in front of me and he smiled, but kindly. I noticed his gentle eyes and kind features. I suddenly remembered who he was and I wondered if he was evil as that other merman.

But I mentally shook my head, he couldn't be, something about him just proved that he was kind, not evil. The last time I had met him he had given me a kind greeting as well.

* * *

**A/N: **Okay I know, more questions (I think). But in the future chapters I will find a way to explain things as well as possible! So don't flame and say what the hell's going on? Or, I don't get how the whole castle can be made out of marble! Lol, you'll find out soon. Oh and one more thing, HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: **A stupid computer + Homework - Late updating. Thanks for the reviews, I'll try updating faster. Oh and EarthGurdian, your part right and very close!

**16**

Miruko stared back at the other merman with anger across his eyes. The other did the same; I wondered if they hated each other or something. But then again I thought a lot of people, or should I say mer people, would hate him anyway. Just by his looks you can already tell that he was not very friendly at all.

But as I stared back at Miruko, I wondered if he was related to the other merman. He looked almost exactly like him, except a few small differences. His nose was a little pointier than the others, and his eyes portrayed some other color other than black if you looked harder. His jaw was squarer than the others and he had higher cheek bones. The other merman simply described his features as evil by his cold stare and haunting eyes.

I stared at the other merman and noticed how hate seemed to flicker across his eyes. He seemed more frightening as he glared at Miruko.

I heard Miruko break the silence. _"Well I see your back, Icarus." _

So that's his name, I thought.

I heard Icarus slightly smirk, _"Of course, isn't it obvious… brother?" _

Without knowing I saw my eyes go wide as I heard him mention that Miruko was his own brother. I just couldn't seem to sink it in, surely they looked a little alike, but I never would have thought they were brothers. I had a feeling they were cousins or something.

I noticed that the last word Icarus said was bitterly, and Miruko slightly flinched as he said that word. But I began to wonder why these two brothers' would hate each other, surely there had to be a major reason other than Icarus acting evil.

Miruko spoke, _"And why would you leave your duties behind just to go after a girl that surely is the very heir—" _

"_Shut up!" _Icarus hissed. He looked at me carefully wondering if I knew what Miruko had meant. I simply looked at them confused with no idea what they were talking about. And I wondered what Miruko had meant with his last word.

"_What are you talking about?" _I asked, speaking for the first time. Icarus glared at me and then at his brother, but Miruko simply ignored his stare.

"_You really want to know why Icarus brought you here? It's not because he wants to make you the next queen for this kingdom, but because you are—"_

"_You better not say another word Miruko! Or I will tear you to pieces with my very own hands!" _He hissed.

Miruko glared at him angrily and clenched his fists, _"And why shouldn't I? Surely Calypsa needs to know the truth." _He said.

I suddenly jerked as I heard him say my middle name. _"Hey! How did you—"_

"_No! She doesn't need to know! There is no other truth than this!" _And I saw him swim over so quickly towards me and grab my arm. I watched as Miruko and Icarus glare at each other face to face until Icarus dragged me away from his brother.

Miruko stared at my face and saw the desperateness in them. I didn't want to leave with Icarus.

"_Where do you think you're taking her?" _Miruko asked. I saw Icarus stop and turn back around, I thanked Miruko mentally.

"_Why should you care?" _He said. He was about to turn back around until Miruko interrupted him again.

"_It's not the matter if I care, it's if _you _care. If you think Calypsa's going to be your mate than at least you should show some respect." _

I felt my face turn to disgust as I heard Miruko say I had to be his brother's 'mate.'

I saw Icarus's face turn bright red in anger. _"And how do you know what respect is?" _He said through clenched teeth.

"_I do, but I'm afraid you don't. You have never showed any to others, and I see no reason why you would give any to her. You haven't even given any to our own mother when she needed our help and you ignored her cries. How you watched her die with a look of disgust, how you treated others with—"_

Before he could finish, I saw as Icarus's eyes begin to grow a strange red color and inside his hand something glowed.

"_That's enough Miruko." _He warned.

He stopped speaking and silently stared at Icarus for a few seconds until he spoke again. _"All I'm saying is for you to give her a separate room where she can think through this carefully, and make her get to know the palace before she starts staying with you. Keep in mind you _did _kill her father. Don't you think she hates you for what you did?" _He said.

"_I don't care." _Icarus answered back.

"_Then what if I told her the truth Icarus? Wouldn't you care about that?" _

I heard Icarus snarl at him then let me go. _"Fine! But only for three days!" _

"_No, make it a week." _

I heard him laugh at Miruko. _"You have a tendency for making everything go your own way brother." _

"_Perhaps."_

"_Well then, for a week, but no longer than that!" _He yelled. He turned to look at me and smiled. _"Don't worry my love, soon you will be mine." _

I watched him leave the chamber while I was left alone with Miruko. I stared at him and he simply stared back at me quietly.

I broke the silence, _"What the hell was that suppose to mean?" _

He smiled, _"You have so much to learn." _

* * *

**A/N: **Okay, still some mystery I think, and it's a bit short. But please review everyone! And hopefully if I get about seven reviews, I might update faster. But if I don't… well you'll have to wait for quiet some time (again). 


	17. Chapter 17

**17**

I was sent to another room just like Icarus had let me. Miruko led the way and we silently swam down the huge hallways of the palace. I rather thought it was amazing here, and the ceilings were carved into shapes and forms making some of them appear as mer people, sea creatures, nature-like backgrounds, and even some humans. The green substances on the walls were cleared around the carvings as well.

I spotted designs on the floor also, mixed with varieties of color. All based on some of the carvings on the ceiling.

I began to think this place seemed like some sort of fantasy, a fairy tale that a child would dream to be in. With mer people everywhere, music echoing inside the palace, dances played, different rooms… it just seemed too perfect.

But not to me.

I hated it here, it was keeping me away from the outside world, keeping me away from my sister, my home, my friend, and my freedom. I was in hell, I was in a prison that locked me away from reality of the human world. Was there a way for me to escape? Unlikely. Was I safe here? Of course not, with a merman who killed my father and suddenly wants me to be his 'mate', I was trapped with my worst enemy and probably will be staying with him for the rest of my life. Does that make this perfect? Not to me, it never will. Perhaps to others it could be.

But what if I _could _escape from here? I never thought of a plan, and I do have a chance to look around the palace for quiet some time. So couldn't I find ways to get out of here, even with all the guards protecting the castle?

I suddenly grinned without knowing. Thanks to Miruko, I'll have a chance to get out of here, without anyone finding out.

My grin faded as I started to realize what the point of escaping was. I was trapped as a mermaid, so I couldn't step into the outside world. I couldn't return home, not without my human feet. And what was the point if I did leave? Icarus or one of the mer people might find me, and I'd be stuck back here with tighter security.

I looked behind me slowly to see two guards following us as I headed to my room. They cautiously stared around us afraid danger might approach any second.

I turned my head back around and rolled my eyes. What danger could possibly come here?

Miruko soon led me to a large room connecting two hallways that appeared to be a ballroom. There were mermaids busily swimming around, and I noticed some carried trays filled with silverware on them.

Perhaps they're the servant's of the palace, I thought.

I also thought it was cute that they wore small little aprons on the shirt they were wearing. I wondered where they got the clothes from along with the silverware and trays. Maybe they created these items just like humans did.

We went to the hallway on our right, this time it was a little narrower and less decorative on the walls. It was dark so I couldn't see the end of it, and there were doors on every side, each made out of… wood? I mentally shook my head, how could they even have such things? Certainly there were no trees growing underwater, right?

But maybe anything could be possible here, I thought. Mermaids were known to be fake, so what else could there be here which is known as a fairy tale in the human world?

I had so many questions, but none with answers.

I looked up at Miruko and he stared at the rows of doors. I looked to see that each door had numbers written on top of them.

I wanted to ask him all sorts of questions going through my head at the moment, but apparently with the guards behind us, they would overhear what I had to say. So I decided to wait until they probably left some time soon.

We continued to swim for about three minutes until Miruko stopped at a door on the left. I looked up and saw that it was a simple brown door with the number thirty seven written on top of it.

I saw one of the guards pull out a key and insert it in a hole on the door. I thought it was kind of strange that the mer people had even come up with the idea to put locks on their doors. Maybe they almost have the same inventions humans do.

The guard opened the door and waited for me to get inside. I looked up at Miruko and he gestured me to go in. I frowned and went inside.

I looked around the room for a moment noticing that it had a simple shell-like bed in the corner, a mirror, carvings around the room, and a few items placed on a rock that reminded me of a table somehow.

I saw the guards give the key to Miruko and they left. Miruko came beside me and handed the key.

"_Well, just use this key whenever you need to leave the room. You're free to roam around the palace as much as you want along with getting to know the people. If you have any questions—"_

"_Yes! I mean – I have a few questions." _I interrupted.

He waited for me to go on.

"_Well um, how did you guys come up with all this stuff?" _I asked.

"_What stuff?" _

"_Oh you know, marble floors, carvings of stones, building this place up, the wood, the silverware, how you sing with your actual voices—"_

"_Well—"_

"_The human sculptures, the gold, the silver, the rubies, the diamonds, all the luxuries…" _

"_It has to deal with the past." _He interrupted.

"_That's it?" _Not very helpful, I thought.

He smiled, _"Calypsa, you'll have to ask others these questions in order for you to get to know the people. It's the only way that it can help you meet them—"_

"_And how do you know my middle name?" _I asked.

He seemed suddenly nervous at my question. _"It's just that, well, I cannot tell you really." _

"_Why not?" _

He only shook his head, I frowned. I seemed to stare at him for a while until I decided to ask the most important question.

"_Miruko, why did Icarus kill my father?" _I asked.

He hesitated before he answered, _"Because… I can't tell you that either."_

"_Why?" _

Once again he did not answer. I was becoming annoyed.

"_What secrets are you hiding from me? Please tell me Miruko, I have to know!" _

He remained silent.

I clenched my teeth hard and grabbed him by the shoulder. _"Tell me now! Or I'll—"_

"_Or you'll what? You obviously don't understand Calypsa, but one day you will know. Sometimes things must be answered by oneself in order for you to understand, because when you do find out… things will change."_

I let him go and was surprised by my own outburst. I seemed to understand him and that calmed me down a bit. But suddenly my eyes became watery from the thought of my father. I had no idea how much I missed him; I wanted him back to comfort me and tell me everything was going to be okay. That this whole thing was just a nightmare and I'll wake up to find out this whole thing is a dream.

But of course it wasn't, and I closed my eyes as I felt a wave of loneliness spread through me. I wanted to be with my sister too, I wanted her silliness back, to play games with her again, but I was stuck here. Forever.

Miruko seemed to notice my sadness. _"You miss your father don't you?" _

I nodded my head solemnly.

"_And your sister?"_

I nodded my head again.

He gave me a reassuring smile. _"It's alright Calypsa, one day you won't be as lonely anymore. You'll have friends, and who knows? Your sister may even join this world."_

I jerked my head up, _"Really? How?"_

He smiled again, _"Soon you will know. Because something strange is about to happen to you soon Calypsa. And maybe then some of your wish may come true."_

I looked down sadly. I hated having to know later on, I wanted all the answers now. I wanted to cry, but no tears fell. I wanted to scream and break this whole place down, but I remained staring at the floor.

But even with his comforting words, I still felt alone and miserable without my sister beside me. I couldn't have my father back no matter what, and all I had left now was Mina. And I had to try anything to see her again.

Miruko still saw my sadness. _"Perhaps getting out of this gloomy place shall cheer you up a bit. I know, there's a dance that should be starting any moment now at the market. Care to come along with me?" _

I looked up at him and smiled. _"That's nice of you, but I don't think I feel like going."_

"_Just try once. See if you like it, then maybe you'll feel a little better."_

I was about to say no until I stared around the room again. It did seem gloomy with no one around and he probably was right. I needed to change a bit and staying here would only bring grief through me.

I smiled again and replied, _"Alright." _

* * *

**A/N: **Thank you so much for the great reviews :) It's nice to know one of my reviewers name is Coral too. And as the name Calypsa… I just overheard someone talking about it at school. Found out that it was Greek! Anyway, please review everyone, much like you did last time! Oh and it would be nice if my reviews reached up to 100 and over…


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: **Sorry, but this chapter isn't going to be about Coral going to the dance. It's based on Mina's POV.

**18**

**(Mina's POV)**

I shrank down on the floor, leaning against the wall. I started to weep as I felt the loss of my sister. I waited for days, yet she did not come.

The orphanage was thinking about putting me in a foster home since no one wanted to adopt me. Most of the kids were new here and were put in foster care. Adults wanted to adopt all the little kids, I know because I had just seen a toddler come to the orphanage and he was lucky enough to be adopted the next day.

I felt tears slowly drop down my cheeks and land on my shoulder. I had no comfort for days; I wanted to be hugged again and to be assured that everything was alright. I wanted my sister right next to me smiling, laughing, playing games with me. But I no longer will have those things anymore.

I choked back a sob as fear crept upon me, fear for staying alone the rest of my life. With no one to rely on, and the foster parents I might be given, everything in my life just turned upside down. And who's the main reason for all this?

Coral.

That sister of mine that I always loved, the loss I felt for her, the hopes of her returning, was all gone because she _left _me. Why? I had no idea; I knew I couldn't survive in this world alone. Coral thinks I don't know the problem I have in my mind, but I do. I know that I will never be able to read, no matter how many times someone explains it to me. I know I will never be able to be as smart as others. Me, the ten year old, can't even write! I have learning disorder and sometimes I can't even understand when others are angry or sad at me. I heard these news while eavesdropping in the doctor's office when my parents learned the news of what was wrong with me.

But I still wanted Coral back, though I doubt she will be. She probably is having fun right now and has forgotten about me already.

I spotted a small ball on the floor and I went to pick it up. I started to squeeze the ball tight from my anger at Coral. I heard it make a squeaky noise and I continued messing with the ball until I threw it angrily at the other side of the room.

Some kids were playing games on the floor and looked up to see why I had thrown the ball like that. I had thrown the ball directly to a young girls head and she started to cry while clutching the spot I had hit her.

I couldn't help but snicker as I watched her face turn deep red and the tears that rolled down her cheeks. She appeared to be only five and some of the younger boys tried to comfort her. They stared at me angrily but I ignored them.

A nun ran into the room and took the little girl in her arms. She whispered comforting thoughts to her ear and I grew jealous.

"Who did this to her?" The nun asked to everyone.

All fingers pointed to me and I couldn't help but feel my face turn red. I knew I was in deep trouble.

Once the nun calmed the little girl down, she walked over to me with anger plastered across her face. I twiddled with my thumb since I was so nervous and curious of what was about to happen.

"What's your name young lady?" The nun asked. I noticed a large mole on the left side of her mouth and it moved when she talked.

"Mina." I said staring at the floor.

"Stand up please." She ordered.

I slowly stood up from the floor, but I refused to look at her face.

"Why did you hit that poor little girl?" She asked. I simply shrugged.

"Why did you hit her?" She asked a little more forcefully.

"It was an accident." I finally answered.

"So why did you throw the ball in the first place?"

"Because I was angry." I replied.

"Angry for what?"

I glared at her, but answered in an even tone. "None of your business."

She seemed taken back by my remark until she calmly replied back, but I noticed the tension in the air and the anger that was displayed in her eyes.

"At least apologize to her then."

I looked over at the little girl and she was sucking on her thumb. I noticed how everyone huddled around her and how a boy my age held her hand to keep her comforted.

If only Coral was here to help me out, I thought bitterly.

"Sorry." I muttered.

"That's a good girl. Now off to bed everyone, it's getting late." The nun said.

Everyone started to leave the room and I waited until everyone was gone until I left as well. The nun stared at me as I left and I couldn't help but snicker at the mole on her face. It just looked so nasty on her big round face.

She didn't seem to hear my laugh, or pretended not to.

My room was just down the hall, and as I arrived to the front door, I went in. I stood staring at the strange darkness that filed the room from every corner. Some whispering could be heard as two kids talked to each other quietly. They were my age and both were girls.

I shut the door behind me and stood in the utter darkness. The kids had stopped whispering and some ruffling could be heard as they climbed under their covers. I walked towards my bunk bed and stared at the sleeping form on the bottom bunk. The girl snored lightly and her blond hair covered her face.

I moved my hand around on the table next to me and felt some clothes on top of them. I grabbed it and quickly undressed my clothes as I put on the pajamas the orphanage had lent me.

I placed my street clothes neatly on the table and took hold of the latter that led to the top bunk and began to climb.

Once I reached to my bed, I quickly slipped under the covers and tried to fall asleep, but couldn't. The snores that came from the girl under me kept me awake as well as the darkness that surrounded me.

I hated the dark and how I wished someone could at least turn on the night light or keep the door open a little so some light could portray into the room.

I sighed and turned my head the other way and faced the wall beside me. I tried counting numbers in my head, but I only knew one through fifteen. So that didn't help me much.

But I did the only thing my father used to tell me, try to stay awake and that will catch you some sleep. I tried keeping my eyes open all the way, but eventually my eyes slowly began to shut as I drifted off to a deep sleep.

I began to dream, and it felt so real that I could've sworn I felt the ocean's water touch my toes. I stood in front of the beach, watching the sun set behind the sea as it gave a sparkle across the water.

There was no one at the beach except me, and the wind blew hard against my face causing the dress I was wearing to flow freely against the wind.

But the dream wasn't focusing on the wind, because a rock appeared out of no where in the middle of the ocean. There I saw someone sitting on top of it. I could not spot its face, but my dream seemed to zoom into view until I could see the figure that was sitting on the rock clearly.

I noticed it was someone with long blue hair that blew in the wind and wore a blue tank top. A strange glow seemed to come off of her and her back was turned to me. Slowly, she turned around until I caught a glimpse on her face. She looked straight at me and I gasped.

Corals tear stained face looked at me and I saw how different she had become. Her eyes were so blue that they were almost the mirror image of the sea itself, her eyebrows, eyelashes; almost everything was blue except her skin. She had no legs, but instead long blue fins that sparkled under the setting sun.

Tears flowed down freely on her cheeks and her eyes seemed to plead for help. But before I knew what was happening, everything turned black and I was in the darkness wondering what had just happened.

But another dream was yet to come.

This time, I wasn't in my body as the new dream showed up. I just watched the scene as if I was a video camera taping everything.

The setting of the dream took place at an under water city. I noticed mermaids swimming around the place in some sort of a rush as if they had work to attend to. Everyone was headed to the other side of the city and a palace loomed into view.

Everyone went inside the palace, I wondered if there was a special occasion at the place.

I've seen this city before, back when I had a dream about dad. I remembered how he had fins instead of legs, just like Coral in my other dream.

And soon enough I felt as if the scene of the city switched inside the palace. And I stared straight at my father.

He sat on a high chair across the room; the place seemed to be some sort of ball. My father looked over at the mer people that were in the room. Some were dancing; others sat at tables or simply tried to have a good time. Voices were coming from all over the room, but no one's mouth moved, almost as if they were talking in their heads.

My father looked at me but didn't seem to notice I was there. He had those bright looking blue eyes, much like Corals, he gave off a strange glow as did Coral, and his fin was dark blue.

He looked so much like Coral and he appeared younger. I remembered how mom showed me a picture when dad had married mom when he was much younger.

His face looked exactly like the one mom had shown me, so I knew this was when dad looked much younger. But this was no surprise to me, because I had seen this dream before.

I saw a beautiful blond hair mermaid with a bright green fin swim over to my dad's side. But her beauty was no match to how I had seen Coral before. Both my dad and my sister seemed to have given off a power that I couldn't understand when I had seen both of them.

The mermaid seemed to flirt with my dad and if I existed in the dream I knew I would roll my eyes.

My father paid little attention to her, but she tried very hard to make him look at her. She even started moving closer to him until my dad stood up from his seat and swam away leaving the girl disappointed.

My father swam over to a group of mermen and started to chat with them.

Since this was the exact dream I had some time ago, this was where my dream always ended and I wondered if I would wake up now. But instead, I heard the conversation with my father and the mermen clearly.

"_The war is coming close My Lord. I am waiting for your orders for when we shall attack our enemy." _A muscular merman asked wearing armor.

"_The time will come soon lord Dameon, once we receive the message of how our enemy is doing." _My father replied.

Enemy? I thought. So even mer people went to war? That probably explains the armor some mermen are wearing and the weapons.

"_Maybe you should just kiss their asses and _that _will probably end this stupid war." _Another merman replied, he had an evil look across his face.

"_Or maybe you should suck some women's breasts and that might make you feel better, Icarus." _My father shot back.

"_Ah but what if I already have?" _Icarus replied coolly.

"_Quiet you fool! You as a general of war must know the duties to respect your own King!" _Dameon snarled.

"_King? He is no king, only a fool that was born to end our own queen's life. If it weren't for you King Demoritu_s_," _He said his name bitterly, _"The queen wouldn't have died from child birth._ _ The Gods has sent a curse upon us to rule over this wretched kingdom." _Icarus answered.

"_You bastard!" _My father yelled. He was about to strike Icarus when Dameon stopped him.

"_I shall cut that tongue of yours if you say another word!" _My father yelled.

I seemed astonished by the argument. Who was this Icarus, and why was my father known as a king?

"_Icarus, leave at once or I will make you with my own sword." _Dameon threatened.

Icarus glared at my father angrily, then at Dameon. He seemed to hesitate before he finally left.

"_If only I could kill him with my own hands_._" _My father said.

"_Yes, but you know he is a great general and very worthy for this war." _Dameon replied, _"But since you are the king, it is your orders if you wish to execute him or not."_

My father did not reply for quiet some time.

"_Well, this is a ball, so let's enjoy this time for it may be the last." _

My father and the merman next to him swam away and I wondered if they were going to dance or something. But my dream made me look over to the far left corner of the room. There I saw Icarus glaring at my father in anger. He hid in the shadows where no one could see him.

I couldn't help but realize that my father was swimming towards him, and Icarus grinned as my father swam closer and closer without knowing. My father smiled as Dameon cracked a joke until he saw Icarus hiding in the shadows.

But that didn't stop Icarus from what he was about to do, I saw an object held firmly in his hand, one that was sharp. He raised it high above his head and threw straight at my father's head.

I woke up before I could see what was about to happen.

The room wasn't dark anymore and I saw that the window's curtains were drawn open to reveal light in the room. A nun stood shaking the children on the bottom bunks so they could wake up.

"Alright come on! It's time to get up!" She yelled.

She looked at me to see if I was asleep. She saw my eyes open and sighed in relief.

"Well at least one of them is up." She muttered.

I jumped off the bed and was still dazed by the dream. I knew the dream was true; I sometimes had these kinds of dreams. I had told Coral about them even though I was trying to keep it a secret. I thought Coral would laugh at me and say that I was seeing things.

But she believed me.

Now what did that first dream mean? Did it have something to do with Coral's disappearance?

I had no time to think anymore because the nun ordered everyone to get dressed and leave the room.

But I couldn't wait to go to sleep again. I had to know what happened next. Did Icarus stab my father in the head or not?

**XxxOxxX**

I continued to play in the same room as I did yesterday. The orphanage was so boring, all we did was sit in a room and play for hours. We rarely got to go outside and luckily, today was the special day to go outdoors.

Everyone was excited and so was I. I did need to catch some fresh air anyway; this place was going to suffocate me some time soon.

The nuns made us stand in a line as they counted us one by one. Then they led us downstairs, past the older kids section, and out the building. Once we stepped outside everyone started to lose control and run around.

The nuns didn't tell us to stop running or anything, they let us be so we could enjoy the nice sunny day.

While all the kids played with each other, I took a walk around the building trying to explore the place. The orphanage had no gardens, or any fountains to look at nor any benches to sit on. It simply had a playground at the front of the building where all the children played.

The ground had dried grass that needed to be watered badly. Everything was just so boring here, and I didn't feel like playing with the other kids. So I couldn't see any excitement from here or inside the room that I always stayed in. Not counting the fact that the outside air seemed to be full of happiness.

I got tired from standing so I sat down on the dirt watching the kids play. I noticed most of them were playing hide and seek, and one girl tripped as she ran from a boy who was trying to tag her. The boy laughed and touched her shoulder and shouted at her that she was 'it.' The girl got up and wiped her knees before she ran after the other kids.

I sighed and tried to relax until I heard someone call my name. I looked to the left, then to the right, but no one seemed to pay any attention to me.

Someone called my name again and I stood up. I glanced at every direction, but it appeared as if no one had even spoken my name. I shrugged as I realized I was hearing things.

But the voices didn't stop; they continued to call me until I stood up angrily.

"Who's calling my name?" I screamed. The kids stopped playing and stared at me as if I was crazy, but then they continued to play as if nothing happened at all.

I sighed and was about to sit back down when I heard my name again, only this time the voice seemed to tell me something else.

… _Mina… come to the sea… I need you…_

The wind blew against me as if telling that I should go where the voices told me to. I tried to ignore the voice but it sounded familiar.

… _Mina please… come to me…_

Could the person talking to me be who I thought it was?

There was only one way to find out.


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N: **I'm going to make a longer chapter for forgiveness from my long updation.

**19**

Once again I made my journey through the palace with Miruko, but this time no guards seemed to be following us. The place was busy as ever, some mermaids even stopped what they were doing just to see Miruko and I passing by. They seemed so surprised to see me that I even heard a small conversation begin as I swam by. I couldn't understand what they were saying; I only caught a few words.

"…_Calypsa's here?"_

"_I heard her father died… is it true she's…?"_

"… _I heard she's to be the next ruler…"_

"_How did she become a mermaid…?"_

"_What's that merman doing with her…"_

"… _covers nothing below her waist…" _

What were they talking about? I had no clue what any of them meant, I especially wondered how they knew my father died. Was my father so famous that even the mer people knew about him? He was just a truck driver after all, what could be so important about that?

A flash back hit me so suddenly, I couldn't help but yell out in surprise.

"_Oh you know, dad wasn't human until he met mom, wanted to give up his old life and marry her. Things like that." _That's what Mina had told me some time ago. Yet I had taken that matter so easily, I didn't even think about what it actually meant for a while. What did she mean by that? How could my father possibly not be human?

Or maybe my father was a merman before…

I shook my head, that couldn't possibly be true! My father wouldn't have been a human if he was a merman, and wouldn't Mina and I be born as mermaids? I thought.

But as I gazed around the palace wondering what Mina had meant, I realized it could be true. If I was a human before and became a mermaid now, then couldn't it be possible for my father to be a merman and turn into a human?

"_Calypsa? Are you alright?" _Miruko asked. I saw him staring at me in concern.

"_Yeah, I'm—I'm fine." _I replied.

"_Maybe you shouldn't go to the dance—"_

"_No really, I'm alright."_

He gave me a reassuring smile and I felt my cheeks grow hot. I tried covering them with my hands, but that made me look stupid. So I pretended to scratch my cheeks so it would show the reason why they were red.

Shortly thereafter, I saw a huge opening in front of me and beyond that I saw what appeared to be the city. There were more mer people out there than in here, and all of them seemed to be going in one direction.

I went through the opening which led me out of the palace, and a wave of relief washed over me.

"_Well it seems everyone is in a rush for the dance." _Miruko replied. I looked up at him and he stared straight ahead at the pathway before us. He swam forward and I followed.

We mostly passed by shops, carvings, and large structures. I wondered where the homes were for that I was curious as to what the mer people's houses looked like.

I continued staring at the city ahead of me, studying the structure's as I passed by them until I noticed a mermaid with a rather large belly pass by. She bumped into me slightly and muttered a sorry. When she looked to see who I was, she stopped moving and just gaped at me. I stopped as well staring at her in puzzlement.

She had a bright green fin and dark green eyes with blond hair that seemed to glow like gold. My eyes moved back to her belly and I couldn't help but wonder if she was pregnant. I saw her cheeks grow bright pink and she stared down shamefully.

"_I'm very very sorry for bumping into you my lady. Please forgive me." _She said and looked down on the floor in shame. I couldn't help but notice her eyes turn watery and the color seemed to drain out of her eyes.

Miruko had stopped moving and stared at me to see what I would do.

I grew ever more puzzled and wondered why it was such a big deal if she bumped into me or not. I noticed some of the mer people staring down at me to see if I would punish her.

I smiled at her warmly, _"That's alright, it was an accident after all." _

The color returned in her eyes and she smiled in relief. _"Thank you! Thank you so much! I promise nothing like this will happen ever again!" _She made a small bow before she left.

I heard whispering from the crowd around me and I felt uncomfortable. Had I done something wrong?

I stared at Miruko with a puzzled look and he gestured me to come beside him. I hesitated before I swam over to him and noticed the small smile on his lips.

"_Why did that mermaid apologize to me like that?" _I asked. Miruko's smile widened and my cheeks grew hot again.

"_Well, let's just say you're known as someone important here Calypsa." _He replied.

My eyes shot straight up. _"Stop calling me by my middle name. And I hate the way you talk so mysterious. Why can't you just tell me everything?_" I argued.

His smile faded. _"I told you, I can't tell you anything." _

"_Because you're stupid brother Icarus said so? What makes him better than you?"_

He suddenly had a thoughtful expression on his face. _"There are too many reasons that he's better than me."_

"_Why? You're kinder, smarter, and who gives a damn if he's stronger than you?" _

His eyes darkened, and for the first time he stared at me in anger. _"Everyone gives a damn if he's stronger! And how do you know if I'm smarter than him, Calypsa?"_

I tried to find words to answer back, but couldn't. His angry stare made him look so much like his brother that I just froze in my spot staring at him.

His features relax. _"I'm sorry. Let's just go to the dance before we're late."_

I followed him as he swam away. His face had a blank stare, but his eyes held sadness and worst of all, fear.

We moved in silence until Miruko spoke suddenly. _"You have no idea what he's going to do to you." _He said barely above a whisper. I stared up at him puzzled.

"_What?"_

He closed his eyes for a second. _"Never mind."_

I frowned but did not reply.

Finally, I saw a huge crowd loom into view. There, I heard cheering and laughs coming from the mer people. Everyone had smiles across their faces, and some mermen stared at something with wide eyes. A look of satisfaction crossed their faces and I wondered what they were looking at.

"_Well what do you know? We're late after all." _Miruko said. He gently grabbed my arm and pushed me forward towards the crowd.

We swam to the top of the crowd so we could get a better view, and there I saw what the mermen were looking at. There were dancers in the middle of the crowd, their bodies moved so gracefully and accurate, but that wasn't what the mermen were staring at. There were five dancers, four formed a circle and the fifth one was in the middle. The fifth one wore so much jewelry that she sparkled in the water with her purple fin. Her hair was silver and shined off the water so brightly that you could've sworn it was the moons rays itself. But nothing covered her chest; she only wore shells tied onto seaweed around her waist. And her face was so full of emotions that it made your heart flutter. She was absolutely beautiful.

The four other dancers, however, had seashells and all sorts of sea craft tied around their chests and around their waist. I noticed that all of the four dancers had blond hair with red fins. But their beauty never matched the fifth dancer.

The crowd had given enough space for the dancers, and everyone cheered when the mermaids started to sing with their sweet voices. They sang in a different language that I didn't recognize, but I wondered how they could even speak under the ocean floor. I figured it took a lot of practice.

The four singers started to hum and the fifth dancer sang a solo. Her voice was so strong and pure that it seemed to melt everyone's heart, even mine.

Soon she stopped singing and began to dance again. She twirled so fast making the rubies that she wore around her waist begin to give off a powerful glow.

Suddenly, she stopped twirling and began to move her hips and her upper body. It reminded me of a belly dancer, and she started to move her arms in the rhythm of her waist.

Then, she stopped. She seemed to stare at every one of us one by one, and I saw the color of her eyes. They were red, and it almost reminded me the color of blood. Her eyes stopped on mine and I couldn't help but shiver. They were full of hate, and a desire that I could not describe.

I think she saw me shiver for that a grin formed on her face.

I looked up at Miruko wondering if he stared at the women in awe just like the other mermen did. But instead, I saw anger in his eyes.

I figured she was not a very friendly person at all.

She swam towards me, and I couldn't help but realize how graceful she was. A merman beside me thought she was going to come towards him, so his body tensed. But she stopped in front of me and I noticed the disappointment in the merman's eyes.

"_Well my lady, it's a pleasure to finally meet you at last." _She said. I almost shivered again by the coldness in her voice. But I managed to stay steady.

"_Um… hi." _I said uneasily.

She chuckled. _"You look so much like your father."_

I stared at her in surprise. _"You knew my father?" _

She stared at me like I was an idiot. "_Why yes, everyone knew your father."_

"_What do you mean?" _

Miruko broke the conversation. _"Eugina, the king's orders were not to tell Calypsa anything from her families past." _

I broke in, _"What king? Icarus is the king?"_

Miruko didn't say anything for a while, until he shook his head. _"I've said too much."_

I looked at Eugina. _"Tell me please, is Icarus the king?"_

"_Well, yes."_

I glared at Miruko. _"You could've at least told me that."_

He frowned and did not reply.

"_Well lady Calypsa, the ritual dance is going to start soon in order to favor the Gods. Everyone is welcome to dance, and I'm sure you'd like to dress up nicer other than wearing that… thing." _

I stared down at the tank top I was wearing. Nothing was really wrong with it, but this wasn't really the type of mermaids clothing. I looked around to see everyone was wearing something different, either something like the dancers wore or simply seaweed strewn together to cover the mermaids private parts.

"_But I can't dance." _I said.

"_Oh it's easy; you don't have to be an expert. I'll show you some simple things, don't worry." _But I noticed the strange glee across her eyes.

I stared at Miruko to see if he would let me go, he just nodded his head with his arms crossed over his chest.

"_If you say so." _I said shyly.

She smiled and gestured me to follow her. I swam beside her and the crowd watched us go in silence. A music started up, one that I never heard of since the instruments were so different. I wondered where it was coming from, but Eugina told me to hurry up.

We came to a corner where mermaids chattered noisily and jewelry was hanging in stacks on rocks. We entered in some sort of tent where I guessed the dancers dressed up, which it was, since mermaids were busy fixing their hair and trying on some outfits.

"_This is where we dancers put all the rubies and diamonds we need. Or simply a dressing room as everyone calls it." _Eugina explained. _"Feel free to put anything you want." _

I thanked her quietly and looked around the place. My eyes immediately stopped on a shelf, I saw something that looked like a vest, and like everything else in this room, it had rubies placed on it. I thought it looked pretty good so I took it off the shelf and showed it to Eugina.

She frowned. _"That? Why don't you just get something to cover that?" _She pointed her finger below my waist and I wondered what she meant.

"_Cover my waist? What for?" _

She stared at me exasperated. _"Don't you see the small slit their?" _

I stared harder at what she was pointing and found out that she was right.

"_Oh, but it's just a slit." _

"_Just a slit? You pee out that you know." _She said.

I stared at her open mouthed. _"Oh, I… didn't know." _Maybe that's why everyone stares at me in shock, I thought.

"_Well now you do. Haven't you noticed everyone covers their waist?" _She said. I nodded.

"_So then next time cover your waist, and your behind." _

I stared at her wide eyed. She laughed.

So I looked for something to cover my waist and spotted a nice simple belt that looked like a skirt on the same shelf. It wasn't too fancy, which I was happy for.

I showed it to her and she frowned again. _"Get something more pretty."_

"_But I'm fine with this one."_

She rolled her eyes. _"Oh please, don't you want to show your beauty to that Miruko?"_

I glared at her, _"I don't—"_

"_Yeah that's what everyone says and soon enough they fall in love with the guy."_

I opened my mouth to argue but she told me to hurry up and get dressed. I glared at her and did what I was told.

When I was done, she grinned and led me outside. But before I left, I grabbed my blue tank top since the outfit I wore felt itchy, and I followed her.

When we were about to arrive where everybody was dancing, Eugina pulled me to a corner.

"_Listen you rat. You might as well be the queen for this damned place, but I don't give the hell who you are. I know Icarus is mad about you, but don't you dare take him from me, understood? He's mine, and I'm not going to let you touch him you filth."_

I was taken back by her remark. I didn't even know she liked Icarus.

"_I don't like him anyway." _I replied.

She laughed. _"I don't give a shit, I know your lying. He's crazy about you, and I'm going to find out why. Because him and I were in love until you showed up!"_

I just stared at her dumbfounded. I hated Icarus, how could she even think that I even loved him? But then again she might not know what Icarus did to my father.

I glared at her as I spoke back, _"I _don't _even like Icarus, not one bit. Do you even know what he did to my father?" _

She rolled her eyes. _"Your father gave up his own kingdom just to marry your own mother. Even if Icarus did kill your father, he deserved it! A king never abandons his own kingdom for a filthy little whore!" _

I clenched my teeth and was about to strike her until I stopped and stared at her in disbelief.

"_My – my father was a—"_

"_King." _She finished.

I grew still for a moment not believing what I was actually listening to.

"_But—but how can that be?" _

I heard her give an exasperated sigh. _"Since it was the king's order not to tell you anything, I think I should keep my mouth shut."_

"_But I thought my father was the king?" _

"_You stupid girl! I told you that your father abandoned his kingdom! Icarus took his place, think straight you filthy idiot!"_

"_I - but how did Icarus—"_

"_Why don't you shut up and go fuck someone you rotten whore. Nobody cares if Icarus took your father's place, I'm glad that piece of crap died! Icarus is a better king anyway and I hope he makes your life a living hell!" _

I glared at her and was about to reply back until she interrupted me again.

"_Oh and I hope that crack pot sister of yours dies too. That stupid moron, I heard she can't even read." _She smirked, _"What a retard."_

I felt as if my blood began to boil from rage. She had no right to talk about my family that way.

"_Shut up or I'll—" _

"_Or you'll what? Are you going to call Icarus to save your sorry ass?" _She mocked.

Before I knew what I was doing, I screamed and lunged at her. I pushed her hard against a rock and began to claw at her face. She screamed and frantically tried to stop me, but I knew she couldn't. I was full of hate; no one could talk about my family that way.

"_Why doesn't Icarus save _your _sorry ass now!" _I screamed.

She continued to scream, and I didn't notice anyone come up from behind me. I felt strong arms wrap around me and push me away from Eugina.

"_Let go!" _I screamed. I thrashed around violently until I smacked whoever it was with my tail. I heard a short cry, yet I was still trapped in the person's arms.

I saw other mer people surround me and I had no idea I made such a racket. I looked over at Eugina and noticed how blood poured out from her face.

She glared and pointed at me. _"She attacked me!" _She told everyone. _"I was helping her learn how to dance, but she attacked me!"_

My eyes grew wide. _"I did not! She was insulting my family!" _I shrieked.

The arms around me tightened and I winced, he was practically crushing my ribs. I looked behind me to see who was keeping me still. It was a merman I didn't recognize. I then noticed he was one of the guards since he wore armor across his chest.

"_Your family?" _I looked up to see another merman who had spoken, one I did not recognize either. He had one of his arms wrapped around a mermaids shoulder; they looked like a couple.

"_She wanted to kill me!" _Eugina shrieked.

I struggled again under the merman's grip. _"Liar!" _I yelled.

Eugina clutched her face and her eyes turned watery. She put on an innocent face, _"I was only trying to help you, why did you attack me Calypsa?" _

"_Stop lying! I did not attack you, you piece of shit!" _I screamed. I started to curse at her insanely, and all the while everyone stared at me like I was a wild animal. I noticed Miruko was among the crowds and he stared at me worriedly.

"_Let me GO!" _I yelled one last time before I felt my face grow hot, and my mind grow dizzy. I felt a strange new energy build up from my inside and didn't seem to notice the white glow around me. My face was burning red and I probably looked like an insane killer, but my eyes never left Eugina. The merman who held me let go and stared at me in shock.

I wanted to rip her to shreds, to see the agony on her face, to watch her suffer, and most of all kill her. I was about to lunge at her, but instead something bright came out of my hand, almost as if by magic. It headed straight for Eugina, and the water grew a strange red color.

Eugina stared at the glowing thing for just a second until it hit her hard on the chest. She screamed in agony before I watched her be thrown against a rock.

No one moved for a second, until six mermaids rushed to Eugina's side for aid. Everyone else stared at me in shock. I began to realize a larger crowd had formed and Icarus pushed out of everyone's way to see what all the fuss was about.

He first looked at Eugina's still form and a look of worry crossed over his face. For the first time I saw a look of sadness cross over his eyes until he looked at me. Then that same evil returned and a look of anger spread over his face.

"_Did she do this?" _Icarus asked while glaring at me. Everyone nodded and their reply's were 'yes your majesty'.

I shouted out in despair, "_I didn't mean it! Honestly I meant no harm! I don't know how I did what just happened!"_

When I met Icarus's eyes I saw hate, disgust, and fear.

Someone shouted out that I was a murderer, and soon everyone followed his pursuit. They screamed louder each time they said the word, and Icarus said nothing to stop them.

I began to scream and clutched my head trying to drown out the voices. _"No! You're all wrong! I'm not a murderer, please Icarus tell them I'm not a murderer!"_ But all he did was stare at me.

My eyes grew watery and I pushed my way through the crowd. Mer people moved out of my way quickly, afraid that I might hurt them too.

I swam out of this place as quickly as I could. I heard Icarus's shout for someone to stop me, but I paid no attention to him. I swam so fast, everything went by in a blur. I was amazed at my sudden speed.

I saw the glow of the city soon disappear as I swam up the tall cliff. The ocean's darkness took place, and fishes scattered away from me in fear.

The water pressed against me tightly and my hair swirled under the water while brushing against my face. I had my hands outstretched to see where I was going until I noticed a small light from the top of the ocean floor. I swam faster to that direction moving my tail madly and all the while it seemed to scream at me to stop. I was growing tired.

I heard someone call my name, and although it sounded familiar, I ignored it. But this caused me to swim faster.

Suddenly the water's surface loomed into view and I sprang out of the ocean, hovering in the air for a moment, feeling the light breeze hit against my face, the splashes of the water dancing around me, and the rays of the sun hitting against my back until I dropped back into the sea. I smiled at the warm feeling of the outside world and I jumped out of the water again to feel the air once more.

As I dropped back into the water, I spotted a small rock just a few feet away from me. I quickly swam over to it.

As I approached the rock, I tried climbing it using my hands and tail. It was difficult since my fish tail was so tired from swimming so hard, so I had to use my hands mostly.

As I finally sat at the top of the rock, I gazed around the sea, but my vision was a little blurry. However, I managed to see the bright blue sky with a few clouds up above me, feeling the wind blowing against me softly, and the sound of water hitting against the rock gently. Although the crazy incident just happened a few minutes ago, I never felt better in the last few days.

I smiled and closed my eyes while taking in a huge deep breath from my nose, smelling the salty air for a moment, and then let it out slowly. Breathing this way felt like a long lost memory.

I opened my eyes and stared right at the sun until I looked away from its strong brightness. The suns rays glowed against my face and I felt warm inside, almost as if someone was comforting me. But the outfit I wore felt uncomfortable, so I took it all off and put back my tank top not caring if I wore nothing to cover the slit just below my waist.

So I just sat there, staring straight ahead realizing I was so close to the shore. It was about half a mile away.

My front body began to hurt from the sun, so I turned around. Now the suns rays were hitting my back. But soon enough, it began to burn as well.

So I began to cry.

For the first time I felt tears flow down my cheeks, and I always thought mermaids had no tears. But I figured I probably never felt it since I was underwater. So I cried and a sob escaped my throat.

I knew I had to return back to the sea, and I dreaded it. I just wanted to sit here feeling the soft wind blow against my face, and the heat of the sun on my body.

I wish Mina was here, I thought. At least I wouldn't feel as bad.

"Mina…" I whispered. It took me a while to finally realize I said that; talking had seemed like a long lost memory too.

The wind seemed to carry my voice and I turned around. I stared at the shore ahead of me with my hair blowing against my face. There, I could've sworn I saw someone.

The white figure standing on the island soon disappeared, and I realized I was probably seeing things.

I turned back around and stared at the never ending sea ahead of me. The wind hit me harder, and I felt as if the wind was urging me to talk again. It was a strange feeling, but it felt so real.

_Speak… _It told me. I gasped and couldn't help but wonder if the wind had told me that.

_Tell what you want… _It whispered. The voice was soft, like an angel's.

My mind told me I was only hearing things, but my heart told me to answer. I hesitated wondering which choice was best.

_Speak… _The wind said once more.

I decided it was best to follow my heart. But what did I want? My father? He was dead, along with my mother. The only thing left for me to want was Mina, but how could I get her?

I whispered my sister's name wondering if that might work. The wind drifted around me as if saying I should go on.

"Come to the sea." I said, my voice seemed to be carried by the wind, and itblew harder causing the water around me to churn.

"I need you… Mina please." I said as I fought back tears.

"Come to me."

I closed my eyes and said in a stronger voice. "Come to where you belong."

And the wind faded as it carried my words.

* * *

**A/N: Have a Happy New Year everyone!**


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: **Three reviews? Has my story lost interest somehow? Please tell me if it has, and I'll try to fix it.

**20**

I waited for Mina to come as I stared at the shores hoping she might appear soon. Yet not even one person was out at the beach, perhaps because of the water's reddish color from the fungi.

The silence was unbearable. Surely I heard the waves rocking back and forth with the seagulls screeching, but to me it was only silence for that it wasn't the sound I was looking for. I was searching for Mina's cries and screams that she had found me, as well as her understanding to why I could no longer be with her.

But would she come? I was not so sure; the wind was probably my imagination even though I could've sworn I heard it talk to me.

I waited for what seemed like hours, yet Mina did not come. I began to believe that what I heard from the wind was just my imagination after all.

I sighed and lay on the rock staring up at the clouds. My tail swayed against the water and I was grateful that the clouds covered the sun. My body was most likely deep red from the sun burn and as I looked over at my tail, the skin was slightly peeling off. I touched it with my finger and gasped in pain. A sharp stinging went through my lower body and I bit my lip to try not to scream.

But I remained lying on the rock refusing to move from my spot. I didn't want to go back to the sea, not without seeing Mina. I wasn't really bothered by the fact that my body was going to fry if I stayed any longer under the sun. No matter how much pain I would go through, I still made up my mind to never go back to the sea. Besides, the mer people would find me, everyone would believe I was a murderer, and who knew what Icarus might do to me. Eugina had said she and Icarus were lovers, and obviously he would be furious that I hurt Eugina.

I turned over to the side and rolled my eyes, I didn't care. Hell, even I didn't mind if I killed Eugina, none of the mer people mattered to me anyway. And who cares if Icarus would be broken hearted? He deserved it anyway; after all he did kill my father.

I flinched as the clouds moved away from the sun causing the light to shine over me. I shut my eyes tightly trying not to weep, but the suns rays were unbearable. A sob escaped my throat as my skin felt as if it was on fire.

My mouth felt dry and my eyes also seemed to burn even though they were shut. I looked up towards the shore hoping that Mina was there.

She wasn't.

I covered my head with my arms to protect myself, yet the light was overpowering. I screamed as I saw the skin on my arms slowly peel off and turn deep red, even a little blood began to pour out.

"Mina!" I screamed. I wept and kept on repeating her name hoping that by some sort of miracle she would appear.

My body was urging me to go into the water, but my mind kept on telling me to stay till Mina came, no matter how much I burned. My breathing was slowing and my skin felt like a reptiles.

Then I gave up, I decided the pain was too agonizing so I dropped heavily into the water. But not before I heard someone shout my name. The voice was a girls, and it sounded familiar. Yet I ignored it as I touched the smooth surface of the water, the coolness relaxed my skin and the pressure felt too comforting.

My gills were working slowly, and my whole body felt numb. I continued sinking down into the ocean floor hoping that some sign of movement would show up from my fish tail. Yet it remained unmoving.

Pieces of my peeled skin were floating to the top of the surface. And I was staring at them in shock realizing how much skin I had lost. And as I managed look down at my fish tail, I noticed some of the bluish color was gone and instead there was blood pouring out of the skin rapidly. The water around me was red and I grew drowsy from the blood loss.

My vision was unfocused and my mind was spinning. Sleep sounded so great that I imagined myself in my own bed with the covers drawn over me and my head touching that soft pillow of mine. I even missed Mina's snores, and that sounded comforting as well.

Therefore my eyes began to shut and my tail touched the sea floor. I sprawled on the ground and tried to relax the warm surface of it. I didn't even become aware of the blood circling around me as it reached to the surface.

I was about to close my eyes until I spotted a shark coming towards me. But not just _a _shark, this one was big, and it reminded me of a Great White shark.

My eyes flew open and I quickly tried moving away, but my tail was still stiff from the pain and my arms only moved. So I swam using my arms, but I moved too slowly. The shark was coming in fast and I knew I would be dead meat any time soon.

The sea floor wasn't too deep and since I was close to the shore, I swam towards it hoping that the shark would swim away when the water grew shallow. But it was a long way yet, and I knew I wouldn't be able to make it in time.

I swam nonetheless, using my arms. My skin continued to bleed and I was losing too much blood, so I grew weak and exhausted from straining myself to swim.

The only thing left for me to do was draw the shark's attention away. But I had no clue what sort of plan I could form. I tried looking back at what my science teacher told me once about sharks. It was a long time ago, probably four years.

With the shark approaching closer, I had trouble concentrating. My mind worked rapidly trying to remember what I had learned about sharks before.

Suddenly, I remembered, yet the plan wasn't too good but it was the only hope I had left. It was suicide if anyone found out about it, but I had to take my chances.

I lay still pretending to be dead, and the shark came closer until it was only a feet away from me. My body seemed to shake in fear and I prayed to myself that this would work.

The sharks head poked my ribs to catch a glimpse of movement. I lay still, but all the while my mind was screaming to swim away as fast as I could, and I had no idea how I contained this much courage. Perhaps from the blood loss I was too weak to be able to move any longer.

But as the shark opened its mouth wide, I knew my plan had failed. I realized this was probably my end and I waited for its jaws to close in around me, but all the while I was hoping some miracle could happen until I felt something swim pass me instantaneously. I opened my eyes and saw something that was unbelievable.

The black tail, the dark hair, at first I thought it was Icarus. But soon afterwards the merman turned around as it attacked the shark with a spear. I recognized Miruko's face immediately as he fought the shark violently.

I watched as the shark lunged for Miruko, but he moved out of the way too soon. The shark spun around and charged him once more. Only Miruko's weapon was firmly set in his hand as he aimed the spear directly at the shark's mouth.

As the shark opened its jaws, Miruko threw the spear into its mouth with such a speed that it looked only a blur. The spear sliced through the shark's jaws causing the other end to protrude out of his head. Blood poured out of his head and he twisted in the water from pain. The shark moved violently and was about to strike Miruko yet again until his body grew still and sank to the ocean floor.

Miruko turned to me once he knew for sure the shark was dead. He became aware of the state I was in and quickly rushed to my side. All this time I was laying on the ocean floor feeling as if I was losing my consciousness. My body felt so weak that I barely managed to lift my head up as Miruko rushed to my side.

He took me in his arms and held me tightly. He studied the skin that had peeled off of my tail and body. His hand touched the section where a large amount of skin had torn off of my arms. I flinched as a wave of agony shot through me and he quickly moved his hand away as he saw my reaction.

"_Calypsa, what have you done?" _He said.

"_See… Mina, I need to see her." _I replied unsteadily.

He held me tighter as if I might disappear, and all of a sudden I felt warmer, and the pain seemed to go away. I practically smiled at his comfort and when I looked at his face, he smiled at me.

* * *

**A/N: **I need more reviews! And I would be happy to get over five. Remember, reviews are highly appreciated! 


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N:** I'M BACK! It's been 2 years folks, and it's been too long. But I'm back for good! Well, maybe I'll see some new reviews around. I don't know if my style of writing has changed, but I hope it has improved. This chapter will be brief, unfortunately.

**21**

I woke up in a room that seemed quite familiar. The four walls in the room appeared to draw in closer as my mind began to spin. I laid back on the shell like bed and rubbed my forehead.

"_Feeling better?"_ I jerked up as soon as I heard the sudden voice in my mind. My eyes turned to the right and I spotted the familiar face of Miruko. His eyes stared into mine and his soft face gave a gentle smile.

I grimaced as I tried to move from my spot. _"Where's Mina?"_

"_It's alright Calyspa, we'll find her," _ He replied.

"_But I want to see her now," _I insisted stubbornly.

"_I know, but in time you'll see her just the same. It's like you never left her in the first place."_

My eyebrows furrowed, _"Never left her in the first place? I was a human Miruko, now look at me. Nothing will ever be the same again…"_

He was about the reply but stopped to reconsider what I just said. I knew for a fact that nothing was ever going to be the same, and I feared that I would never see Mina again.

Where I am is a prison. This dark center of the world would ultimately destroy my life till the end of my days. There were too many mysteries here, especially those that revolved around me. I knew I had to get out of here to reunite with Mina, but even that seemed impossible now.

It's strange how one's life can change so easily. Where once I lived in a rather strange, but simple family, I now faced what appears in fairy tale stories or dreams.

Is this reality? Or perhaps it is a dream after all? My mind began to spin as questions loomed into focus, but strange questions. Am I living in a Disney world? Did the Little Mermaid suddenly spark into life? Is there such a person like Ursula to transform me back into a human?

I chuckled at that last thought. Miruko stared at me with a puzzled expression yet I never spoke of anything.

"_Well, Icarus wants to see you,"_ Miruko implied.

Icarus, yes, the devil, the murderer, the monster, wanted to see me.

"_And I suspect that I'm in trouble?"_ I asked cautiously.

"_He wouldn't dare touch you now Calyspa."_

I smiled, _"Is it because you'll stop him from hurting me?"_

He gave a mysterious smile, _"Perhaps." _

--

**A/N:**Yes, it's short. But I just want you to know that I haven't forgotten about this story. So please **review**, and this will eventually update soon.


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N:** Remember, it's the reviews that persuade me to write further. I'm sure you got the hint already… **review!**

**22**

I smiled meekly and followed Miruko to meet Icarus. I wasn't sure what I was about to witness, but I did hope that it would involve only yelling and Eugina would be fine.

Well, I wasn't too flattered if she was 'fine', but if in fact she died, I may have pushed it a bit too far.

"_What do you think he'll do to me?"_ I asked Miruko quietly.

He looked at me with those dark beady eyes and replied, _"Don't you worry Calypsa; I told you he wouldn't harm you."_

I sighed, _"You're way too mysterious Miruko; it's about time you answered straightforward to me."_

"_Then what would you like me to say?"_

My eyes grew wide as if I had loads of questions to ask, but before I could say anything Miruko interrupted. _"Don't start again Calypsa."_

"_Start what?"_ I asked innocently.

"_You're constant questions and rambling, I already told you I can't say a word."_

He can't say a word… I thought. What a coincidence, is this secret so important that it would ultimately destroy Icarus's plans? Indeed, there's no question about that. But what was his plan? He killed my father, and my mother warned me about him too.

And then it all made sense.

"_He's going to kill me isn't he? Just like my father…"_

Miruko's expression turned to surprise, _"No! He wouldn't hurt you Calyspa, have you forgotten?" _

I shook my head, _"No, I remember what you said of course. But that doesn't mean you're right, besides—"_

"_Besides is out of the question. Icarus wants to talk to you is all, there's nothing more to it Calypsa." _

"_Oh really? So it's not a big deal is it? So tell me this, why should I follow his orders in the first place? Why should I follow the orders of someone who killed my father?" _

"_Calypsa I—"_

"_You what? Can't say anything? Typical, I might as well just leave this place."_

"_No, you can't."_

"_Or else?"_

He paused but didn't answer. I smirked at him, _"Exactly, I shouldn't even be here."_

With that I turned around and left, but before I could get any farther Miruko grabbed my arm. _"What are you going to do by yourself Calypsa? You can't become human again, you're stuck like this forever, whether you like it or not. And you don't know what's out there in the open sea, you could get hurt and no one can help you."_

"_Maybe I'll just wait for Mina."_

"_And then what? She's human Calypsa, you're not. You can't stay with her forever; you live in a completely different world now."_

"_Well if mermaids exist then so does Ursula!"_

"_Who?"_

I tried moving my arm away, but Miruko had a firm grip. _"Let go! Let me go! Now!" _I yelled.

Miruko released his grip with an appalled expression written across his face.

"_I'm not trying to hurt you Calypsa," _he said.

I noticed tears build up in my eyes, _"No, of course wouldn't. You'd want Icarus to do it for you. All you've ever wanted was for me to be dead!"_ I snapped.

"_That's not true!"_

"_Of course it's true! If you even cared about me for one second you'd tell me everything! I'm tired of all these secrets Miruko, I'm sick of it! All I ever wanted was to be with my sister, that's all!"_

Miruko appeared distressed all of a sudden. His eyes looked deep into mine as if he tried to understand why I was losing so much control. He moved closer to try and comfort me, but I backed away.

He sighed, _"What would you do if I told you everything Calypsa?"_

I was a bit shocked that he was taking this into consideration. _"I'd finally know what Icarus is up to."_

"_But what would you do about it?" _

"_I don't know, it depends what it is." _

"_So you have no plan."_

"_I didn't say that."_

"_Yes you did. You seem to believe that he's trying to kill you, and yet you won't seem to do anything about it but run away and find Mina. What difference would it make if I told you or not?"_

I took his words into consideration and realized he had a point.

"_But maybe I'll know why he killed my father."_ I answered.

Miruko broke a small smile, _"You don't know?" _

I paused before I answered, _"Well, not really."_

His eyes grew deeper into mine as he moved closer to me, but this time I didn't back away.

"_He wanted your father's throne so he could become King of the Sea, and the only way was to kill him."_ He answered slowly.

I looked down as I felt tears grow in the corner of my eyes. It was all greed, all Icarus worried about was power.

But it still made no sense…

I looked back at Miruko with an obvious question written on my face, _"My father was a human Miruko, he abandoned his throne to be with my mother. Why would Icarus still want to kill him? And me?" _

Miruko hesitated; he didn't want to answer this question. _"I don't know if I should say…"_

"_Please tell me Miruko, please. I'm begging you now, please!"_

He closed his eyes to take my words into consideration, but soon he began to nod his head no.

I grew angry once more, this was as close as I got to know the truth, and Miruko was backing down again. _"Just tell me that, and I won't bother you again, I promise!"_

He looked back at me and replied, _"But that question answers everything." _

I clenched my jaw in frustration, and this time I was angry at Miruko for good.

"_I knew you were just like the rest of them."_

"_Calyspa please…"_

"_No, you never cared about me; you're a liar and a traitor! You can't do anything for yourself! You want me dead, that's all!"_

I tried to swim away but Miruko caught my arm again. I tried loosening his grip but he was too strong.

"_Calypsa, please don't do this!" _He insisted.

"_Let go!" _I yelled as I tried to release his grip from me. Miruko tried to calm me but I couldn't hear any of his words, I was too angry. Soon an outer glow began to form around me as my anger began to rise.

"_Please stop Calypsa!" _

"_Let me go!"_ I insisted. I wasn't going to give up, so I continued to try and run from him. Soon enough his grip started to loosen and my arm broke free.

"_I hate you!"_ I cried as I hit Miruko across the face with a loud thud. He grimaced in pain and I quickly sped away from him.

Yet he soon came after me at an alarming speed. I kept looking back hoping he wouldn't catch up, yet each second he grew closer.

I swam past room by room, some mer people looked at us with puzzlement, but before they could react we were gone within a second. I knocked over an object along the way and pain shot through my tail. Soon I began to slow down since my body began to grow weary.

But I couldn't give up; I continued to swim as fast as possible through to water until I came across a current moving in my direction. Finally, luck was at my side.

After the current began to slow, I saw an opening inside the castle and I quickly swam to it. I glanced behind me to see if Miruko was there, but he was gone. I smiled knowing I lost him, yet once I looked ahead he was there. He dove straight at me and it was too late to react.

Once again he held me, with both arms this time in a hugging position. I squirmed trying to break free yet it seemed impossible now.

"_Please don't hate me, Calypsa, please…"_ He murmured to me softly.

I continued to squirm but I grew tired and eventually stopped.

"_Why are you doing this to me? Why can't you let me go?" _I asked wearily.

"_I can't bear to see you go alone."_

"_Why?"_

He paused and once again looked at me straight into the eyes, but there was something I couldn't seem to understand from his expression. His eyes grew serious and he held me tighter.

"_Because I love you." _

My eyes grew wide with surprise as he said those words. But before I could react, his warm lips touched mine as he drew a kiss.

**--**

**A/N: REVIEW! **Haha, I bet some of you are tired of seeing that. Well, I have a final on Monday, so bear with me if I can't update soon.


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N:** I'd like to thank my reviewers, without you I wouldn't have updated!

**23**

I felt the softness of Miruko's lips pressed against my own. Words cannot describe how shocked I was from his actions and yet his lips never parted. A wave of heat crashed over me as I felt his kisses grow rougher. I tried to pull myself away but couldn't and it wasn't because Miruko didn't let me but because my mind wouldn't comply.

Too many feelings began to course through my body; anger, warmth, shock, even love… whichever one it was, I still couldn't pull myself away from him and for a brief moment I felt my heart pound with excitement.

He slowly pulled his lips away from mine and I felt as if my heart stopped; I soon realized I didn't want that moment to end….

His eyes opened and stared into mine. I didn't say a word nor did he. We just looked at each other for what seemed like an eternity as we tried to figure out what just happened, or at least I did.

Miruko broke a smile and his face began to draw in closer till I heard laughter coming from behind us. My head snapped back and there I saw Icarus laughing at the both of us and I felt a shiver course down my spine.

"_Haha, that was absolutely brilliant Miruko! How wonderful of you to kiss Calypsa right before my eyes. Unexpected I suppose?" _He remarked sarcastically.

He swam closer and Miruko pulled away from me with an expression full of shock and fear.

Icarus began to circle us mysteriously and I began to grow anxious. Questions loomed into my thoughts as I wondered what Icarus had planned for this. I grew uncomfortable as he drew closer to me and his eyes moved straight into mine. They were full of hate and anger and I looked away from fear. He smirked and turned to face Miruko with his expression transform into disgust.

Miruko gave away no signs of movement, not even a single flinch, yet I knew he was frightened.

"_You're pathetic,"_ Icarus retorted to Miruko. His voice was so cold that I puckered my lips to keep them from shaking.

"_To think that I trusted you. You're nothing but a weak and foolish brother."_

"_It was a mistake—"_

Icarus grabbed Miruko by the neck and pulled him closer so there faces were merely inches away. _"Don't tell me it was a mistake because I've had enough of you. You deserve to rot away in hell like Demoritus!" _

"_Icarus let me go!" _Miruko's insisted. His arms reached to grab Icarus and I noticed his grip was growing stronger around his neck.

"_I told you, I had enough."_ Icarus hissed. Miruko's tail began to move back and forth frantically as he tried to fight against Icarus's tight grip. His eyes grew wide and the gills at the side of his neck began to move up and down frenetically as he tried to catch some oxygen. Icarus began to laugh and I remained frozen unaware of what I should do. Miruko needed my help and I didn't how to save him.

Without thinking, I quickly swam behind Icarus and grabbed his hair and pulled with all my strength. He merely pushed me away with his tail and I was thrown back against some rocks with an amazing force. I felt the air knocked out of me and pain shot through my back.

Icarus's laugh grew more hysterical and my anger began to rise. I tried to get up but pain shot through my back and I winced.

"_Maybe it's best if you die Miruko."_ Icarus spoke sinisterly. _"Calypsa is mine, she always will be, and there's nothing you could do about that." _

Yes there is, I thought. You can't win Icarus, not now, not ever.

Anger washed over me completely and I noticed a strange surge of power build up inside my mind. My body began to give off that strange glow I had seen earlier but it didn't matter much to me anymore. I wanted Icarus, but I wanted him dead.

"_Let him go, Icarus."_ I insisted calmly yet persistently.

He seemed to ignore me and I saw the life dying out of Miruko's eyes. I got up from the ocean floor and dove straight at Icarus in an alarming speed. He was facing away from me and I raised my arms and slammed them against his back.

He gave out a cry and released Miruko. I quickly swam next to Miruko and caught him in my arms.

He appeared to be dazed for a moment but he stared back at me with relief across his face. I smiled, _"You alright?" _

"_Yes… but you need to leave. Now." _ He replied.

I stared back confused. Miruko wanted me to stay and now he wants me to leave?

"_You were right all along Calypsa, get away from here!" _

Here was my chance to leave, but somehow I didn't want to. I let go of Miruko trying to decide whether I should leave or not.

Now's your chance, I thought, you can be free. I turned around as I prepared to leave but I couldn't. I felt a twinge in my heart and I suddenly knew where it was coming from.

I looked back at Miruko, _"I can't leave without you." _ He stared back at me with despair but he didn't hesitate to object. I had made up my mind.

"_You should have listened to him you know." _My eyes grew wide as I heard Icarus's voice from behind me. Before I had time to react I felt his hands clasp over my mouth and something bitter entered my throat. My eyes began to darken and the last thing I heard was Miruko's cries before I fell into unconsciousness.

**XoooXoooX**

"_It's strange how it's so easy to fool little girls…" _I awoke with Icarus's voice inside my head.

"_How pretending to be the wind can fool anyone…" _

I blinked several times trying to focus from what I was seeing. I tried to move my hand up against my head yet I couldn't. I looked down and noticed I was tied against a rock with seaweed, but it wasn't just any rock. It was that strange rock I had passed by the first time I came inside the palace, the one that was so dark it appeared to be an endless pit.

"_I tried to get you to come sooner so you can see what you've wanted all along, but you just had to be with Miruko." _

My eyes shot wide open as I realized Miruko wasn't here. Icarus gave a sinister smile as he saw the panic in my expression.

"_What'd you do to—"_

"_Miruko?" _He cut me off, _"Don't worry, he'll be the least of your worries." _

"_Where is he?"_ I insisted. I grimaced as I tried to pull my arms free but it seemed impossible.

"_No, no, no Calypsa. The real question is; where is Mina?" _

My head snapped back to his direction and I clenched my teeth in anger. _"You know where she is?!" _

That bastard, I thought, he better not have hurt her.

He grinned, _"No need to panic so soon, she's right here, with us." _

"_Stop playing games, tell me where she is!" _

"_If you insist…" _He swam over to a group of seaweed that appeared to be hiding something is a glass tube. I tried to look past it but couldn't, the seaweed was too thick.

He pulled back the seaweed and at first I couldn't believe what I saw. But there she was, Mina lifelessly floated in the water with her eyes drawn back revealing the white underneath. Her face was so pale it was as if she lost her pigment completely. Her hair floated carelessly in the water as it brushed against her face.

I screamed and bubbles escaped from my mouth. I pulled harder against the seaweed but I couldn't seem to loosen the grip. I continued to try and scream and Icarus began to laugh as I helplessly fought against the seaweed.

"_You bastard! How could you! How could you kill her?!" _

"_Oh yes I could kill her Calypsa, and I did it just the way your father died." _

Tears formed around my eyes and I cried in despair from what I was hearing. It just can't be true… Mina can't be dead.

Icarus swam over to me and looked straight into my eyes with a smile. I pulled harder from the seaweed trying to hit him but his smile grew wider.

"_You see Calypsa, I created the perfect plan. Here you are as I transformed you into a mermaid desperately trying to find answers. But… the only problem was; Mina didn't come ashore with you, so I had no choice but to make you into a mermaid." _

"_What are you talking about?" _I insisted.

"_Well, I still kept my plan intact. I figured I'd drive you insane and you'd soon search for the only one that can relieve you, Mina."_

I grew puzzled and I heard Icarus sigh. _"Don't you remember the voices in your head?"_

What voices? But I suddenly knew what he was talking about. Those voices in my head that I heard earlier while I sat on the surface of a rock were not from the wind, it was Icarus urging me to speak with Mina.

"_You see, I could get inside your head Calypsa, but not Mina's somehow. So I had to make you say what I wanted her to hear. Then of course being the stupid girl she is, she came closer to the water getting deeper and deeper till I soon grabbed her and--" _

"_Stop it!" _I cried, _"Why? Why are you doing all this?" _

"_Because of power, Calypsa." _

"_What power, you're already the 'king' of this place…" _

He chuckled, _"I mean real power—the power of the sea. Your father inherited great power from his father as did you and Mina, but being a greedy person, I wanted it all."_

He swam back beside Mina's tube. _"Of course, the only way to get it was to kill your father. I tried once at a ball, but he stopped me. Soon I was banished forever, but not for long. Once your father became that weak human for that whore mother of yours, I knew I could get it from him." _

He chuckled, _"And I did." _

Suddenly, he dove straight at me and grabbed my throat. His arms began to glow and I felt my skin tearing from the immense amount of heat his hands had.

"_You see that stone you're sitting on?" _

I opened my mouth to scream as his finger dug deeper into my throat.

"_I have your fathers and your sister's blood on it, the only thing left for me to do is to put yours and then I will have power beyond what anyone can imagine. You see, the only way for me to acquire it is if it's on this stone…" _

Before I could do anything, I felt a sudden searing pain inside my stomach. My eyes looked down and I saw Icarus's hands punctured through my stomach and blood began to spread across the water. I looked back at Icarus with fear and pain written all across my face but he only gave me that sinister smile.

"_I want you dead Calypsa, like your father and sister," _he hissed.

My body began to grow numb and I cried out as his hand shot out of my stomach. Blood slowly settled on the surface of the stone and I felt as if my body was tearing itself apart. I chocked as blood rose through my throat and out of my mouth. My body grew limp and I slowly lay on the surface of the stone as I prepared for death to overcome me.

The last thing I remembered was Mina and Miruko before I fell into darkness.

--

That's not the end folks… I hope it wasn't too confusing.

Demoritus – Remember, that used to be Calypsa's fathers name.


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N: **Sorry for the long wait folks, bear with my laziness please :P

**24**

Miruko lay still on a rock paralyzed from the pain. What Icarus had done to him was horrid and painful, he wanted more than anything to turn back in time and save Calypsa from his wretched brother.

He knew he made a mistake and he was paying for it dearly, but so was Calypsa. If only she had left, none of this would've happened…

But he had to face the facts and there was no going back now. Calypsa might still be alive and only he could save her before it was too late. Yet he couldn't move; his body was in such an atrocious state that to even move a mere inch would cause him to wince from the pain.

He began to recall what Icarus, his brother, had told him only moments before. _"You shall die brother, but slowly and painfully. And then you're going to wish you were never born."_

He had cast a spell on him, but there were no wounds, nothing that would seem painful from the outside. It was his mind that was playing tricks on him and created an illusion that he was in absolute pain. Miruko's mind was defenseless against the spell and he knew there was no hope fighting against it, his brother had grown too strong…

* * *

Icarus watched as Calypsa's lifeless body floated on the water. The blood had spread across the stone and he waited for the moment of absolute power to reach him. Anger and greed was written across his eyes, he had waited for this moment for so long and now was the chance to finally get it.

It was so easy, almost perfect. Everything went according to plan except for Miruko. If he just stood out of the way he wouldn't have to die.

But that didn't matter anymore. Icarus had grown cold hearted over the years. His rage and greed for power overtook his soul and created a monster beneath it. He didn't mind of course, to have the greatest power of all was all that he wanted. Friends were merely a waste now, and love was just an empty feeling.

He remembered how Miruko used pathetic attempts to change him. _"Why do you keep doing this brother? Don't you see this power is controlling you? You're not the same anymore!" _

But he didn't care, he was happy. He wanted this kingdom to bow down and worship him or they would suffer dire consequences, much like Miruko. No one would stand in his way, not even an army.

His lifelong goal was coming true and this made him smile.

Yet as he watched the blood continue to trail on the stone, he felt nothing. No surge of power or any increase in strength. He felt the same as before and he clenched his teeth in anger as he realized Calypsa may still be alive.

* * *

I thought I would only see darkness but I began to dream. But it wasn't like any other dream I'd seen before, no, this dream was different because it was so real. Perhaps too real, and it may not even be a dream at all.

It was a rather bright place with nothing but shimmering lights all around me. I saw that I was back as my human self once more since I not longer had fins but rather legs instead. I wobbled my feet and smiled, it was good to be back to normal again.

Or so I thought. Perhaps this was heaven, or the after life of some sort. It didn't seem too spectacular, and after all, there were merely bright lights around me.

"Hello Coral." I gasped as a sudden voice shot out from behind me. I recognized that voice but I was afraid to turn and look so quickly. I turned my head slowly and there I saw a familiar face.

My father stared back at me with a smile, he looked better than ever. There was a strange gleam across his eyes and an aura of joy was all around him. I hadn't seen my father looking so well in years.

I ran to him almost stumbling as I went but I didn't care. My father was here with me and that was all that mattered. I practically pushed him to the ground as I drew a big hug around my father. He held me tightly and we just stood there for what seemed like an eternity. Tears formed in the corner of my eyes from joy and I didn't want this moment to end. A smile grew on my lips and my tears grew into sobs as I realized how much I missed my father.

"This is only a dream," my father said.

No it couldn't be, I thought. I was dead, and this is where I wanted to be—with my father.

He seemed to have read my thoughts, "Go back Coral, that's where you belong."

"I don't want to," I cried. I buried my face into his chest afraid to let him out of my sight.

"Icarus must be stopped Coral and only you can do it."

"I don't want to go back dad. I'm tired of him, I'm tired of that world, and I just want to stay with you!"

"And what about Miruko?" He asked.

I stopped to think for a moment, was Miruko worth going back for? I hardly knew him, yet I did want to see him again.

"You're not dead Calypsa, you need to go back," my father pushed on.

"What about Mina? Will she be there too?" I asked.

My father did not answer; he just looked at me with a blank stare. I repeated my question but he still didn't answer.

"Answer me!" I cried. If I was still alive, then perhaps so was Mina. There was still hope, there had to be.

"I'm sorry Coral, it's just you now," my father replied.

I screamed and my vision began to fade. My father was slowly disappearing and I cried out to him but there was no point. He faded and so did the bright lights…

* * *

Icarus continued to stare at what seemed to be a lifeless body of Calypsa's. He noticed blood stopped trickling and he stared at her for the longest time before he swam closer. The wound was gone and there was no more blood to spill.

It can't be, he thought. It was impossible, Calypsa had to be dead!

He grabbed Calypsa by the throat and began to squeeze with all his might. He made sure her gills would capture no air as he suffocated her.

Calypsa's eyes slowly began to open revealing the bright blue colors beneath it. Her icy stare made his stomach churn, but that only made him tighten his grip around her neck.

Suddenly a hand shot out and grabbed Icarus's arm. Calypsa's arm seemed to have escaped from the bounds and she pressed tightly against his. Her face leaned closer to his and no matter how hard he tried to push her back, her strength was far greater.

"_You're going to pay for this,"_ she hissed.

Calypsa grinned. This time, it was her turn to make Icarus pay.

She pushed him back against the wall with an amazing force and Icarus gave out a cry of pain. He looked at her with fear and surprise written across his face; he had never seen such power before.

I don't have time for games, he thought. Icarus looked at Calypsa with a more serious tone. His mind seemed to cloud with anger; he wanted Calypsa to pay for this dearly.

He gave her his usual sinister smile and fear escaped him completely. _"My turn." _

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**A/N:** Please review, they're highly appreciated :)


	25. Chapter 25

**A/N:** Wahoo! Updated at last :D

**25**

His sinister smile made me want to puke, I was tired of his games and I wanted him to pay. But Icarus was not an easy enemy to be dealt with; he seemed to have much more knowledge within his powers.

But even as the aspect of fear faded from him, I was not afraid either. Not this time, if he wanted a fight, then I'll give him a fight he shall never forget.

"_Go on Icarus, try and show me what a vile creature like you has got to fight for." _I sneered at him. He wanted to play dirty like always with his wretched looks. Well, this time I'll give him a taste of his own medicine.

"_Oh my dear I have something to fight for. It's just your precious Mina didn't live long enough to see it."_

That did it, I lunged straight for his neck but he quickly swam out of the way. Anger was clouding my thoughts and all I wanted was for him to die in the worst way possible. His laughter echoed my thoughts at my reckless state and he was enjoying every moment of it.

"_Anger Calyspa will not make you the better fighter. It's the knowledge and experience that counts." _He teased.

"_I don't care! By any means possible, I _will_ kill you! Even if I have to tear down this city!" _

He grinned, _"Good luck,"_ and vanished before my eyes. I looked back puzzled to where he went, yet there wasn't a trace of him till I felt something hard smash against my head. My head spun a little from the intense impact.

"_I also forgot to mention,"_ he said _"that if you're angry, causing an illusion is quite simple."_

I clenched my teeth hard; this was just another game for him. I was the mouse and he was the cat, but sometimes even the mouse outwits the cat.

"_Stop talking and show yourself you coward!"_ I yelled.

"_Why should I if this is so much fun!"_ Another hit across the head and I slammed against the ocean floor. My vision grew blurry for a moment from the hit. But before I could come to my senses, another knock on the head and I grew more frustrated and dizzy. I couldn't let him win, so I swam away across the room to recollect my thoughts. But once again, another knock to the head and I would pass out any minute.

"_Revenge won't get the best of you. You're weak and you're nothing to this world. You're better off dead like the rest of your family."_ Icarus sneered.

I felt another slam against my head and the coward still won't show himself. My anger was reaching its peak and I felt a strange glow begin to surround me. Icarus seemed to notice this and grabbed my head to slam it against the wall.

He hit me the hardest of all and grabbed my hair roughly. _"I knew you wouldn't succeed in killing me. You take after your father, incapable of doing anything. Well, I'll take much pleasure in killing you Calypsa." _

Icarus was about to bash my head against the rock one last time before I grabbed his arm roughly and held him back. Anger got the best of me and all I could think of was killing Icarus at this very moment. I still couldn't see him, but he wasn't going anywhere under my firm grasp.

"_Listen closely you piece of filth, you may have taken my father and sister from me, but you shall not have your final victory. I _am_ capable of destroying you, and as vile and cruel as you are, evil never prevails." _

An eruption of energy escaped me as I focused all of my anger and strength to killing Icarus. His shrill cries echoed in my mind as I saw him slowly appear under the illusion he cast on me. The entire room erupted into bright read and the water boiled under extreme heat. This did not waver me; it was my power and only my power to destroy. Something Icarus longed for, but he never shall have. Instead, his greed shall kill him under my very own hands.

Slowly, his skin began to turn shriveled and black under my touch. He stared at me through torment and hate before his eye bulged and popped from their sockets. Blood seared through his entire body and his skin was crumbling beneath me. I was exposing what true evil looked like under his appearances that were so dark and disturbing.

For whatever strength he had left, laughter erupted from him. It was a terrible laugh, so hysterical and haunting from him. Even as death took over Icarus, he laughed at his very own defeat. The walls began to crumble and melt under the intense heat wave, but his laughter was the only thing I could remember.

"_I'll always haunt you Calyspa." _

It was the last thing I heard from him before he disappeared into nothing. The heat wave I gave off disappeared with him and I stared at the empty space before me in amaze. Icarus was gone, he was finally gone. Yet I soon felt light headed as my strength seemed to vanish completely. I fell into another unconscious state, but I could still hear Icarus's sinister laughter that would haunt me forever.

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Short chapter based solely on his death, I hope you enjoyed it. Please review and tell me what you think!


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